A CHRISTMAS RULE OF THREE?
Families from just three households set to be allowed to gather for festivities
THE Government is considering allowing families from just three separate households to celebrate Christmas together.
The mooted three-household limit could stir up family rows over the festive period as relatives vie to be on the invite list.
And Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the reopening of bars and restaurants next week is also still a matter of discussion.
However, he told last night’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting that he was less optimistic about wet pubs reopening.
Mr Varadkar said it would tomorrow at the earliest before the Government would announce its plans for exiting Level 5.
Retailers, gyms and hairdressers will be first to reopen with a further easing of restrictions for the two-week period over Christmas. This would see the travel ban lifted to allow people to leave their county and travel home f or Christmas.
However, the Tánaiste has said the Government is considering advising people not to travel to Northern Ireland amid the worsening Covid-19 situation there.
At last night’s party meeting, Mr Varadkar cited the worsening situation with the virus in the North. There have been nearly 2,500 Covid-19 cases in Northern Ireland in the last seven days, including 533 new cases reported yesterday.
Northern Ireland has adopted a
‘We want people to meet friends’
common approach to the festive period with the rest of the UK that will allow three households to mix in a bubble from December 23 to 27. Mr Varadkar told TDs last night there was an outstanding question over Northern Ireland and whether the Government would advise against any travel there.
At an earlier press briefing, the Tánaiste declined to comment on reports that the Government is considering limiting family gatherings to three households, but suggested family visits will be allowed. He said: ‘We want people to be able to meet their families and meet their friends over the Christmas period. We know people are going to do it anyway. So it’s better that we can provide for it in a safe way.
‘Because we’ve got the virus down to much lower levels than in Northern Ireland or in Britain, we think we’ll be able to do that for a much longer period than the five or six days they’re talking about.
‘We hope to be able to do it for something close to two weeks.’
But Mr Varadkar was clear that this approach could lead to further restrictions in January.
‘It’s not possible to rule that out. We’ve seen how the virus, once it reaches a certain point, can return to exponential growth,’ he said.
The Tánaiste said a third lockdown was likely to be shorter. He said: ‘If it does happen at all, we would intend it to be much shorter, more like two or three weeks than the six that we’ve experienced.’
Mr Varadkar suggested that pubs, restaurants and household visits will be at the back of the queue of easing restrictions, opening at a later date than December 1, when lockdown is due to end.
It is likely restaurants and pubs that serve food will reopen from Monday, December 7, although that date has not been confirmed.
He said: ‘Obviously we would like to do the maximum reopening from next week, but we think it’s not safe. We think it makes more sense to do a phase-in of Level 3.
We know from the data that the highest-risk scenarios are people congregating, particularly in hospitality or sporting settings. And people congregating i n private homes. They’re the things we’ll do towards the end. The things we’ll do at the start are the things we know to be safer, for example, opening the shops, opening the gyms, allowing people to avail of personal services, like getting their hair cut. It’ll be haircuts and shopping before nights out.’ He continued: ‘ The idea then is that a date would then kick in in January where restrictions would be tightened again, but again that’ll depend on the numbers. If we are able to keep the numbers low, we won’t reimpose restrictions just for the sake of it, we’ll only reimpose restrictions if we think the virus i s taking off again.’
Cinemas, museums and galleries are all expected to reopen from next Tuesday, along with hairdressers, barbers, hotels and gyms. Churches and other places of worship will also be allowed to resume religious services, with a likely limit of 50 people in attendance. Out