Covid-19: April likely to see only minor easing of current restrictions

The country looks likely to face ten more weeks of significant Covid-19 restrictions. That is the current thinking in Government as deaths and cases of the virus remain high.

If, as is currently expected, there is only to be a minor easing of restrictions next month it means this week effectively marks the halfway point in the post-Christmas lockdown.

That is the sobering implication of today's report by Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones headlined: Key lockdown restrictions set to last until late May.

So it is worth looking at what restrictions may be eased after April 5th, little more than three weeks from now. Have you walked every trail and cycled every back road within your 5km zone? Well that limit on exercise is likely to be lifted, though to what extent is unclear.

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The instructions under Level 4 restrictions – the next full step down in the Government’s ‘The Path Ahead’ plan – say “stay in your county” or “other defined area”.

There have been hints some outdoor activities may resume – could golf or tennis be back on the agenda?

Now that vaccinations have been carried out in nursing homes, residents may be able to look forward to some visits from relatives. This will very much depend on public-health chiefs giving it the go-ahead.

If you work in construction, you may be able to return to what are currently considered non-essential building sites.

Non-essential retail is all but certain to remain closed in April, however, and although Tánaiste Leo Varadkar did suggest there could be a return to ‘click-and-collect’ shopping, other Government figures downplayed the possibility.

And, all going well, all school children should all be back in their classrooms and younger kids in childcare will have returned to creches.

In some good news on that front, Simon Carswell and Carl O'Brien outline how there were no new Covid-19 outbreaks in schools reported during the first week of them being reopened.

But the approach to any easing of restrictions for the next six-week plan to May 23rd will be “minimalist”.

Speaking at his parliamentary party meeting last night Taoiseach Micheál Martin dampened down expectations of further easing of restrictions in April beyond the already flagged changes and said “we need to keep the focus to get the numbers down.”

Mr Varadkar told Fine Gael TDs and Senators that schools and childcare remained the priority and warned that jumping ahead of the plan could result in going backwards.

If there is one glimmer of hope in the gloom, it is that the European Medicines Agency is expected to make its decision on approving the ‘game changer’, one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine today. The first shots are scheduled to be delivered to Ireland next month.

But any game-changing will take a while as the company has told the EU it is facing supply issues in the second quarter of the year.

With missed targets, ripped-up and redrawn plans, Ireland’s vaccine rollout - while good when compared to other EU countries - has been far from smooth. The Government really needs it to visibly pick up pace if the public is being asked to ‘hold firm’ under significant restrictions for more than two more months.

And it needs this current lockdown to be the last.

Difficult choices on illegal adoptions

While a Government decision on how to react to the highly complex and sensitive issue of illegal adoptions has effectively been put off for six months in the wake of the publication of the sampling review, legal actions over the practice have already been initiated in the High Court.

Political Editor Pat Leahy reports on how solicitors for adopted people who are suing St Patrick's Guild adoption society for facilitating their illegal adoptions have told the High Court that they will make claims of "kidnapping, forgery . . . and conspiracy for wrongful concealment".

Jennifer Bray, meanwhile, analyses the two profoundly difficult choices facing the State when it comes to illegal adoptions.

These are to fully investigate the extent of the issue – and in turn potentially turn the lives of those adoptees upside down – or effectively sit on the knowledge that such cases might exist without addressing the truth of the matter.

On a lighter note, British prime minister Boris Johnson has not given up on his dream of a bridge or a tunnel between Northern Ireland and Britain. The reaction ranges from enthusiasm to cynicism, as Northern Editor Gerry Moriarty reports.

Best Reads

Miriam Lord on how puppet pooch Séamus the Dog shows Mary Lou how to ask the Taoiseach the hard questions.

Our lead story today details how former Davy executives are poised to back the sale of the crisis-stricken firm.

Marie O'Halloran has been following the debate on the new Land Development Agency and reports how Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien has said unused State land could house 114,000 families.

Friends of Sinn Féin USA's stateside advertising campaign calling for a referendum on a United Ireland has been criticised.

Playbook

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is in the Dáil at 10am to be grilled on the vaccine rollout.

Leaders’ Questions beings at noon with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar expected to be questioned by Sinn Féin, Labour, Solidarity-People Before Profit and the Regional Group of Independents.

There will be weekly divisions in the afternoon and a Solidarity-People Before Profit motion on access to higher education in the evening.