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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the easing of the restrictions will have to be slow and gradual and that a “road map to reopen Ireland” is being developed and will be approved by the Cabinet on Friday.
However, he said the changes to the current restrictions will be made every two to four weeks and will not happen as quickly as the restrictions were established.
And he warned that restrictions may have to be reintroduced “if it appears the virus is going to resurface.”
Speaking during a Dáil session on Thursday, Mr. Varadkar also raised the possibility that commercial flights would resume in August and rejected claims that the state was favoring carriers rather than consumers in flight refunds.
He also warned that the government does not want to have to rescue bankrupt airlines, after it was learned that Ireland It is among 12 EU member states he wrote to the European Commission to present the vouchers instead of the current legal right to cash refunds.
Varadkar told Rise TD Paul Murphy that people are entitled to cash refunds “but we have to be practical.”
He said: “I want to see Ryanair and Aer Lingus operating some time later in the summer, possibly in August, and I would not like to be in a situation where we have to rescue the airlines because they have failed.”
He said the government “wants airlines to be able to hold cash and issue vouchers, which is effectively bailing out airlines with consumer money.”
The Taoiseach told him that whether the carriers are publicly or privately owned “is not my biggest concern.”
Previously, Mr. Varadkar convened a special briefing with Medical Director Tony Holohan for Cabinet members on Thursday morning. Many ministers conveyed their concerns about the restrictions, but it is understood that Dr. Holohan suggested that there will be no major steps to ease the restrictions when the current closing period of May 5 ends. The cabinet will meet at 3pm on Friday to sign the closure exit plan.
Five criteria
In the Dáil, Mr. Varadkar identified five criteria for future decision-making on restrictions: the progress of Covid-19; along with sanitary capacity and resilience; contact testing and tracing ability; the ability to protect groups at risk; and the risk of secondary morbidity.
He said they will find a way out of the tunnel, but “we are still in the tunnel and we have some distance to go.”
Speaking at the Dáil, the Taoiseach also expressed concern that people in need of medical help are not seeking it. Varadkar said that “the cancer has not disappeared.”
He said Ireland was now in sixth place in the world for head-of-population testing and 160,000 tests had been conducted.
Personal protective equipment was now regularly delivered to nursing homes, but there was concern that in Covid-19 caseless homes there was a risk that someone might bring it in while testing.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said there is widespread concern here about how some decisions are made, and said there needed to be more clarity on how policies are decided.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said it was unfortunate that government ministers were thinking out loud and kiteflying and presenting May 5 as a red card day and then accusing them of being complacent.
Ms. McDonald said that tests of up to 100,000 per week were necessary, while Taoiseach said that 100,000 was not a target, but that tests would be performed as needed.
Varadkar said the goal is to have the ability to do 100,000 but that they were not going to do random tests to get to 100,000.
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