30 000 CROWD FOR FINALS AT CROKE PARK
Supporters to be allowed back into games from July
THE Croke Park roar is set to return for the All-Ireland finals this August under new plans being drawn up by the Government.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has learned the Department of Sport will accelerate plans to allow fans back into stadiums from July as part of the country’s next phase of reopening.
It is thought that by the time the All-Ireland hurling and football finals take place on August 22 and August 29, up to 30,000 fans will be able to attend.
Other sporting fixtures such as rugby matches, League of Ireland games and events such as the Irish Open golf tournament are also expected to benefit from the reintroduction of fans. ‘There will
be three phases,’ a source involved in the plan told the MoS. ‘A small number of fans in stadiums in phase one, moving to a phase two and growing to a point by the end of the summer where we could see 30,000 fans in Croke Park by the time of the All-Ireland finals.’
Optimism is growing within Government due to the rapidly progressing vaccine programme and steadying Covid-19 numbers.
However, ministers stressed the phased reopening will be halted if it is found to be contributing to an increase in Covid cases.
‘As always with Covid, we will be careful,’ a minister said.
The return of fans, who will have to be fully vaccinated, is based on a three-point plan that was drawn up before Christmas for Sports Minister Jack Chambers.
In the first phase, to begin in July, the Government wants stadiums to admit 5% of capacity.
In the second phase there would be enough fans in a stadium to accommodate two-metres social distancing, with one-metre distancing in the third phase.
When the one-metre social distancing rule is introduced by August, it is estimated over 30,000 fans will be able to attend the AllIreland finals. One Cabinet minister told the MoS: ‘We had a plan drawn up before Christmas. But that was
‘Start low and then we can scale up’
before we had advances in screening, vaccination and before we saw how things have gone in the UK and elsewhere in the last few weeks.
‘The plan is to start low and see if we can scale up over a period of weeks, but I think that there will be far more fans in stadiums by the end of the summer than many would have imagined possible.’
Ministers also confirmed to the MoS a list of sporting fixtures is being drawn up for fans to attend. These include senior inter-county GAA championship matches, League of Ireland games and certain home rugby fixtures.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin is due to announce the next phase of ‘reopening’ society next Friday. This will include plans for sport and the aviation and hospitality sectors.
The Departments of Sport and Health will finalise a list of sporting fixtures in advance of Friday’s announcement.
It is also hoped internationally recognised events such as the Irish Open golf tournament, which is due to tee off at Mount Juliet Estate in Kilkenny in July, will now also be able to accommodate large numbers of spectators. A minister told the MoS: ‘In terms of fixtures, there is a broad spread of sport so obviously the All-Ireland Championship games are in the mix, it’s just a case of deciding which ones, and what dates. League of Ireland games will be there as well. And then there are rugby fixtures at home, so they will be going ahead. We are engaging with the governing bodies.’
The committee overseeing the return of fans to stadiums is being chaired by the head of the Aviva Stadium, Martin Murphy. Minister Chambers will meet with Mr Murphy next week in advance of the Taoiseach’s announcement.
In order to attend events, people would have to be fully vaccinated. The Government is also looking at the possibility of using PCR and antigen testing, but the full arrangements have not yet been finalised.
NPHET is scheduled to meet on Thursday, when it will assess all the data. One minister told the MoS: ‘Antigen testing hasn’t really worked out, so as a resolution on its own I don’t really think it is viable.
We will trial a few different methods which will involve antigen testing, [and] PCR testing with various accommodations for people who have vaccinated.’
The Government will spend this week studying a variety of methods of asking people for proof of vaccination for sports events. But since the admission of children is a priority, and they don’t need to be vaccinated, this is proving difficult.
A Cabinet member revealed: ‘We would ask people to produce proof of vaccination, but with most of the population vaccinated by late summer we will have to work all this out.’ Meanwhile, several ministers who spoke to the MoS this weekend agreed ‘sun holidays’ will not be an option for Irish holidaymakers until August. There is also a belief within Government that NPHET will advise that only people who are ‘fully vaccinated’ will be permitted to travel.
Another minister said it is hoped a ‘travel bubble’ between Ireland and Britain will be created in July.
‘We will have Republic of Ireland tourists moving around Northern Ireland with British tourists travelling to Northern Ireland, so a restriction on travel between here and Britain does not make sense does it?’ the minister said.
However, ministers stressed hopes of a resumption of foreign travel this summer are likely to rest with NPHET and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan.
One Cabinet member said: ‘The great fear is that Tony Holohan is going to put the kibosh on the whole thing. Now the usual negotiations will begin, through backchannels in the Government. And, of course, our fears weren’t realised last time when we were able to announce a far more progressive opening up than even we predicted.
‘Nevertheless, I fear that we are going to receive a letter from Tony Holohan next Thursday that is certainly going to be very negative on international travel.
‘NPHET, from my discussions with them, have a great concern about the Indian variant, that it might be vaccine resistant.’
Dr Holohan said this week that the Indian variant was ‘a black cloud on
‘We don’t want it out of control’
the horizon’.
There have been 72 detected cases of the Indian variant in Ireland. Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory Dr Cillian de Gascun said it’s important people take this variant seriously and ‘we don’t want to allow this variant to get out of control’.
Newly published evidence has revealed that a dose of Covid-19 vaccine offers 35% less protection against the Indian variant compared to the UK strain of the virus. Data from Public Health England showed that a single dose of vaccine provided 33% protection against symptomatic infection from B.1.617.2 (Indian variant), and 51% against B.1.1.7 (UK variant).
Two vaccine doses are required to provide 81% protection against the B.1.617.2 variant, which was first detected in India, while two doses provided 87% protection against the UK variant. The data includes information from both the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Despite the concerns over the variant, the Government is working on a number of different plans as the country emerges from the pandemic. One minister said that an aviation plan ‘would involve getting all non-essential travel to the UK up and running by July and the rest of Europe by August. We’re not sure about the United States and beyond yet.’
European Minister Thomas Byrne said the Government expects the Digital Green Certificate to be ready for implementation by the middle of August. Mr Byrne told the MoS: ‘It comes in on the 1st of July and then we have a further six weeks to implement it.’
However, the final decision on the implementation of the ‘Covid passport’ will be made by the Department of Health, which will be guided by public health advice.
Mr Byrne said the new European Covid Travel Certificate represents ‘the beginning of the end’ of the long battle against Covid-19.
Some 1.6 million people or 45% of adults have received their first dose of vaccine, while a further 563,000, or 15% are now fully vaccinated.