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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has announced the lifting of almost all Covid-19 restrictions telling the Irish people they responded when hit by an unprecedented health emergency saying: “you did what you were asked to do”.
He outlined how there has been grief at the loss of life but said: “your collective efforts have saved thousands of lives”.
He said he has spoken to the Irish people on “many dark days” but added: “today is a good day.”
Mr Martin said Ireland has “weathered the Omicron storm”, the rate of infections is reducing and key indicators have stabilised and are going in right direction.
He said the vaccine programme has “utterly transformed our situation” and the rationale and justification for continuing most of the public health restrictions are no longer there.
Mr Martin said: “Spring is coming and I don’t know if I have ever looked forward to one as much as this one”.
He concluded his address saying: “It is time to be ourselves again”.
Mr Martin’s address to the nation comes after the Cabinet agreed to lift almost all Covid-19 restrictions from 6am on Saturday.
Household visits will be permitted with no restrictions, the early closing time for hospitality and events will be scrapped, as will capacity restrictions for outdoor events and indoor events, including weddings.
The same is true for protective measures including requirements for physical distancing, seated only indoor tables, pods of six for activities, the Covid pass requirement for all venues and activities, and the requirement to maintain contact details.
Nightclubs will be allowed to reopen and a phased return to the office will begin from Monday.
Travel and mask wearing
Mask wearing will be required in all setting where it is currently regulated for until February 28th, with protective measures in schools and childcare facilities remaining until that date.
Mr Martin said that because of the international situation there are no changes to the current measures in place for travel.
He said the advice for those with symptoms, positive cases and close contacts remains in place.
The remaining measures will be reviewed by the end of February by which time all children aged between 5 and 11 will have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.
Mr Martin urged parents to engage with their GPs about the vaccines saying they are safe for children.
More broadly he said the unvaccinated and unboosted suffer the most from the virus and he urged people who haven’t had the jabs to get them.
He said: “The pandemic isn’t over. It will still require all of us to be vigilant The changes we are making will likely lead to a temporary rise in infections in the short term but we are advised that the impact of this rise will be limited by the scale of vaccination in the population.”
Mr Martin said: “I can’t promise you there won’t be further twists in this pandemic requiring different decisions in the future but I do know this.
“Solidarity in each other and trust in science has got us to where we are today and will get us through whatever else this virus may throw at us.”
He said the Government’s job is to prepare for any future wave of the disease and hospital and ICU capacity will continue to be expanded.
Business supports
Earlier it was reported that additional supports will be provided for businesses hit by restrictions introduced in December, who will be given the higher rate of employment wage subsidy scheme (EWSS) for a month after it is due to be reduced on February 1st. The EWSS more generally will reduce as planned for other businesses, transitioning to a flat rate subsidy in March and April before ending on April 30th.
For those receiving extended subsidies – ie, those who were hit by December restrictions, it will continue as a flat rate for April and May.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment is set to close to new applicants from Saturday, due to restrictions lifting. Meanwhile, the transition of recipients back onto regular jobseeker rate of €208 will happen on 8 March, not February 8th as had been planned.
The Covid Restrictions Support Scheme, which was altered and expanded in December as new restrictions were imposed, will not be extended beyond the end of this month but will be kept under review. An extra week’s payment will be made to businesses the week after reopening.
Close contacts and travel
The guidance on close contacts and people with symptoms, as well as those with diagnosed cases of Covid, which was introduced earlier this month and relaxed the self-isolation requirements for close contacts, will be reviewed at the end of February.
Day health services will no longer be curtailed on public health rounds, and neither will visits to nursing homes or other care facilities.
On travel, people will still have to produce digital Covid certs and fill in passenger locator forms.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar had earlier said the Covid-19 pandemic is not over and that work remains to be done on the timing of the latest round of reopening.
Mr Varadkar was speaking on Friday on his way into a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan at which the recommendations from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on the removal of almost all pandemic curbs were discussed.
“The Taoiseach will make an announcement at six. Certainly I think the view across Government is that if there’s no longer a public health rationale for any particular restriction well then there’s no political rationale for it either,” he said.
“But there are things that need to be worked out. To make something that’s currently illegal, legal can require a ministerial order to be rescinded, sometimes requires primary legislation to be repealed. We need to do a bit of work today on the timing.”
Nphet on Thursday night approved the return to normal opening hours for hospitality and the end of the use of the digital Covid pass for pubs and restaurants. The surprisingly positive recommendations went further than many in the Government had expected.
Mr Varadkar earlier said the recommendation from Nphet was that the easing of restrictions should happen on a “phased basis”. He said the details of how to proceed and the timings would be discussed and decided later.
“It’s been a very long two years,” he said. “It’s certainly not over yet but we’re in a much better place now than we were previously and that is really down to a world-beating vaccine programme.”
On the possibility of restrictions being needed again in the future, Mr Varadkar said Covid-19 had “surprised us on many occasions” and that “nobody can rule out another wave after Omicron” given immunity wanes and new variants of concern emerge.