Ryan believes easing of restrictions could happen from next week

over 2 years in The Irish Times

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said he thinks it will be towards the end of next week when Covid-19 restrictions begin to ease.
Mr Ryan said Ministers were likely to meet this Friday to consider anticipated updated advice from Nphet, but said this Cabinet meeting may be scheduled for next Tuesday.
This would give the public a few days’ advance notice in relation to the changes, he said on Wednesday. “Towards the end of next week I expect that we will start to see the restrictions start to be lifted,” said Mr Ryan.
Mr Ryan, who is Minister for Transport as well as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, said he was keen to see a return to social life.
He told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland cultural and artistic activities and attendance at sporting events was important, as was a return to working in offices.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party leader Alan Kelly has called for an immediate end to the restrictions on hospitality, saying he did not see the point in waiting any longer.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Mr Kelly called for any easing of Covid restrictions to be introduced immediately, if the chief medical officer Tony Holohan gives his approval.
Mr Kelly was reacting to comments made by Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, who said that it could be a week before restrictions were eased to give notice to businesses.
Mr Kelly said businesses should not have to “lose out” on another week, and there could be another shutdown later in the year so that week could be important to a business.
Mr Kelly also called for measures to ensure outdoor events go ahead. He urged a return to indoor-seated events along the lines of requirements last October.
Government sources have said they expect some restrictions to be relaxed from next week.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar on Tuesday evening told a Fine Gael party parliamentary meeting that he hoped March 31st would signal the end of most restrictions.
It is expected that the lifting of restrictions will be phased, and a return to normal hospitality trading hours and an increase in the number of people allowed at weddings and indoor and outdoor events will be first on the agenda.
Nightclubs will open after that.
Mr Ryan on Wednesday cautioned that the severity of the Omicron variant should not be downplayed.
“We have to be careful as Covid keeps changing. The situation now is a lot better than it was a few weeks ago,” said Mr Ryan.
It was important not to prejudge the situation, he said, and referred to Denmark where rising Covid cases was a cause for concern.
Mr Ryan urged young people in the State who have not yet received a booster vaccine to do so for their own health and for the health of the country.
Earlier on Newstalk Breakfast, Minister for Sport Jack Chambers said there was room for optimism in relation to the easing of restrictions.
He said the Government would engage with Nphet on Thursday, and all the public health indications were that the situation was moving in the right direction.
The Omicron variant has not impacted on the country as badly as had been feared because of the vaccination programme and the resilience of the health service and its staff, he said.
Mr Chamber said his target was a return to 100 per cent attendance at sporting events. “People want to get back into the stands.”
While there was optimism in Government, any easing of restrictions would have to be done in a structured way, he warned.
There were 979 Covid patients in hospital on Tuesday, with 93 of those in ICU. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was on Tuesday notified of 5,767 cases of Covid, and a further 5,916 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.

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