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Eamon Ryan Says Covid-19 Cases in Next Week Will Affect Christmas Restrictions
By Ciara Phelan
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said that the Covid-19 cases in the coming week will have an impact on the Christmas restrictions.
The Transport Minister also told the Irish Mirror that there was a “good debate” in Cabinet around possible fines for approaching people who congregate with alcohol.
The government has now returned to proposals that would seek to prevent a repeat of revelers drinking on city streets after a backlash over possible proposals from ministers and backbench TDs.
Minister Ryan said the cabinet agreed that current statutes that prevent people from drinking on the streets of Dublin and Cork must be enforced.
He said: “There are statutes in Dublin and Cork on open drinking, so I think the point in Cabinet is to properly enforce them.
“When they are effective, which they are, as I have seen in my own constituency where the guards appear, they disperse.
“So I think we can manage it and I think we can manage it with the existing statutes.
“I think there was a good debate [about fines] in the Cabinet and recognition that we have done well as a country, the third best in Europe at the moment.
“We have to bring people with us, we have to have really careful people in the next two weeks.
“It would have taken a bit of time to implement new regulations.
“It would be faster and better to use the existing statutes and really work with the guards and make sure they are enforced effectively, which I think the guards can do.”
Meanwhile, Minister Ryan said Christmas restrictions will depend on how Covid-19 cases are in the country over the next week.
He said: “There is a real agreement on that because if we can avoid that increase that we have seen in the last four or five days it will put us in a much better position.
“We are still going to wait until next week to see the numbers.
“We are in the third of three two-week periods and a lot depends on how we do it in the next week, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.”
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