Change to All-Ireland access rules unlikely says Donnelly

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said it was unlikely that there will be any changes to the Covid-19 rules for attending GAA matches in the coming weeks.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland he added that he would be surprised if there was a change in rules before this weekend’s football semi-final or the football final on September 11th.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will meet on Wednesday after which it will issue advice to Government before the plan for the next phase of reopening is announced in the coming days.

Mr Donnelly said that last Sunday’s All Ireland hurling final seemed to have been a well-run event “within the stadium” but that he had been concerned about the scenes of people socialising in large groups afterwards.

The Minister encouraged anyone who feared they may have been in a high-risk group to get a PCR test to give themselves peace of mind.

It was not fair to the entertainment sector to speculate about the possibility of events like the Electric Picnic going ahead for people who were vaccinated. The suggestion needed to be discussed at Cabinet, he said.

However, he did acknowledge “there’s a lot of merit” in what chief medical offier Tony Holohan said about not having concerns about an outdoor event like the Electric Picnic taking place if attendance was limited to the fully vaccinated.

Dr Holohan gave a strong indication that Nphet would endorse plans for further reopening, saying he was “optimistic” the country would be in a position to move on from some of the current restrictions “in the near term”.

However, he warned that the next phase of the reopening would only be safe for people who had been vaccinated, and suggested that unvaccinated people should not be allowed to attend events such as the All-Ireland football final.

Delta surge

The indications were that the peak of the current Delta surge would come in the next four to six weeks, Mr Donnelly said. Following the meeting with Nphet, the Cabinet will meet next week and draw up a roadmap on what measures could be eased, but all actions would be based on public health advice.

“We will be looking at what measures can be relaxed sooner than the four to six weeks and what measures can be relaxed once various criteria have been met including stabilisation of the current surge.”

Measures such as mask wearing, cough etiquette and social distancing could be required for some time, he said.

It was very difficult to say for how long restrictions would be required as there could be further variants, but based on the success of the vaccination programme, the Minister felt that restrictions could be eased by Christmas.

Events for only those who were fully vaccinated would be much safer, he said as the risk of transmission was much lower.

The approach of requiring Covid certs to enter pubs and bars had gone well, he said, despite political opposition, the issue now was could such a similar plan be used for large-scale events.

“There’s a lot of merit to it, the risk goes down. The entertainment industry has had a brutal time. We want to do everything we can to open up safely.”

Mr Donnelly suggested there should be more pilot entertainment events to scale up such activities, but he declined to comment about the possibility of the Electric Picnic being held for those who were fully vaccinated.

There is a growing expectation that restrictions will be eased considerably when the Government announces its roadmap for the next phase of reopening, though some sources say that some reopening measures will not be scheduled until later in the month, and may be confined to those who are vaccinated. The Government continues to insist that its priority is the return to school, college and the workplace in September.

Dr Holohan’s comments will encourage those in the live events industry who are campaigning for reopening of their sector. Significantly, the Minister for Arts Catherine Martin â€" who has been advocating within Government for a faster reopening â€" met with the Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday. A further meeting with industry representatives â€" at which Mr Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have agreed to attend â€" is scheduled for next Monday.

A spokesman for Ms Martin said the Government would shortly decide on “a clear roadmap for the sustainable reopening of activities in the live entertainment, culture and arts sectors”.

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