GAA supporters must curb ‘exuberant’ All-Ireland celebrations, Donnelly warns
HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly has warned against “exuberant” GAA celebrations as the end of the All-Ireland hurling and football championships approach with several counties hoping for a first win in decades.
With lockdown restrictions easing significantly from tomorrow, Mr Donnelly appealed to the GAA to ensure safety remains paramount, while also defending the decision to keep wet pubs shut.
The minister’s comments came as the latest figures showed there were two more deaths from Covid-19 and 299 new virus cases – most of these were in Dublin. There are 94 cases in the capital, 41 in Donegal, 27 in Wicklow, 14 in Louth and 13 in Limerick with the remaining 110 cases across 20 other coun
ties. There were 257 patients in hospital and 30 people in intensive care.
Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people is now 92.3. Donegal’s 14-day rate per 100,000 is 219.9 while Dublin’s is 104.3. Donegal has the highest incidence rate for a 14-day period in the entire country.
The Health Minister said celebrations after club championship games in September had been a contributory factor in the spread of Covid-19, along with the reopening of thirdlevel colleges and allowing wet pubs to reopen in 25 of the 26 counties.
Mr Donnelly said the club championship celebrations cannot be repeated after the delayed All-Ireland hurling and football finals in the coming weeks.
“It needs to not happen,” the Health Minister said. “The GAA, I think, is taking this very seriously, and measures have already been put in place,” he told RTÉ radio’s This Week programme.
Waterford – who qualified on Saturday for the All-Ireland hurling final – have not won a senior title since 1959. Their opponents, Limerick, have only won twice in the last 47 years, while the footballers of Cavan, Tipperary, and Mayo are still in contention for a very rare title win.
Earlier, Mr Donnelly argued the Government did not disregard Nphet’s expert advice. He said most of their recommendations had been accepted.
Mr Donnelly defended the controversial decision to keep pubs that do not serve food closed over Christmas. He said the move to reopen restaurants and bars serving food was justified to give the devastated sector a break economically, and to give people a chance to get out of their homes after a long lockdown.
“People have been in their houses now for five-and-a-half weeks and the people are saying ‘we want to go out’,” he said on Newstalk.
The Health Minister said it was impossible to clearly prove that a spike in numbers last September was down to wet pubs being open – but the Government had to “make life-and-death decisions in real time”.