Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHY ARE WE WAITING? » Review of plans for full schools reopening
Call for roadmap on way out of lockdown Foster upbeat & says ‘brighter days coming’
ARLENE Foster was facing calls last night to come up with a roadmap out of Covid lockdown after Boris Johnson set out a four-step plan to ease restrictions.
The PM laid out plans for a staged re-opening of England so long as tests are met before any move is made to the next stage.
Mrs Foster yesterday insisted “brighter days are coming”.
The First Minister added: “We will be reviewing our plan on
Thursday which we hope to set out to the Assembly on Monday of next week.”
One business lobby group said the “Executive should provide a similar datadriven road map to give businesses clarity on what the next steps are”.
Mrs Foster said the Executive listened carefully to what Boris Johnson set out in his exit plan.
She added: “I know people want to see a plan, they want to see an exit route out of this lockdown, but what we must ensure, like the PM, is that this is the last lockdown.”
In terms of schools in England reopening on March 8, Mrs Foster added Education Minister Peter Weir’s preferred option was to have all children back on that date.
She said: “Unfortunately our health advisers didn’t think that that was the right way forward and I understand that we have to take a safe and sustainable way forward.
“But I hope we can now revisit that again because I know full well from my own personal experience that the kitchen table is no substitute for a classroom.”
But Deputy First Minister Michelle O’neill said we can’t expect a rapid exit from lockdown. She added: “It’s going be slow and steady in terms of lifting restrictions.”
Retail NI chief Glyn Roberts said: “We look forward to the publication of the Executive’s road map because it is vital they give less tunnel, more light and above all else hope to our community.”
Hospitality Ulster chief Colin Neill added: “With this forward plan now in place, we are calling on the Executive to give a similar defined pathway, with specific dates, when they bring forward their framework for reopening Northern Ireland to the Assembly on March 1.”