CITY TRIBUNE
New Covid-19 restrictions come into effect tonight
New measures to respond to the Covid-19 emergency have been announced by Government – including new income supports and closures of ‘non-essential retail outlets’ and gatherings outdoors to be limited to four people
Announcing the measures, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “These are unprecedented actions to respond to an unprecedented emergency.”
Restrictions announced a fortnight ago are being extended until April 19.
And from tonight at midnight, the following measures come into effect:
- markets, casinos, bingo halls, libraries and other similar outlets are to shut
- all hotels to limit occupancy to essential non-social and non-tourist reasons
- all non-essential retail outlets are to close to members of the public and all other retail outlets are to implement physical distancing
- all cafes and restaurants are to limit supply to take away food or delivery
- all sporting events are cancelled, including those behind closed doors
- all playgrounds and holiday/caravan parks will close
- all places of worship are to restrict numbers entering at any one time to ensure adequate physical distancing
- all organised social indoor and outdoor events of any size are not to take place
The Taoiseach said: “Gardai will increase interventions where venues are not in compliance with, or where groups of people are not adhering to recommended physical distancing.
“All household contacts of a suspect case (that is, a person who is awaiting a test or test result) should restrict movements until the test is reported negative or for 14 days since the onset of symptoms, whichever is shorter.
“Individuals should work from home unless attendance at workplace is absolutely essential.
“Social gatherings of individuals outdoors should be no more than four persons, unless all are from the same household.
“All non-essential indoor visits to other persons’ homes should be avoided. All crowded places, including public amenities, should be avoided. All scheduled cruise ship travel will cease,” he said.
He added that the Government are raising the Covid Unemployment Payment to €350 a week.
“This is approximately 75% of average earnings in the sectors most affected, and compares favourably to what is being done in other countries. The first payments will be made on Friday.
“The Covid Illness Benefit will also increase to €350 per week and can be topped up by employers. This will be paid to people self-isolating.
“In order to encourage employers and companies badly affected by the Emergency to keep staff on the payroll, a wage subsidy scheme will be introduced to co-fund 70% of the cost of salaries up to a maximum of €38,000 a year. At a salary of €38,000 the subsidy will equate to €410 a week in take-home pay.
“The cost of this will be great. Many billions of euro in the coming months. But we can bear it and we will be able to pay it back as a nation. We do so willingly because it is the right thing to do and because we owe it to our fellow citizens.
“I believe that maintaining the link between employees and employers and companies will make it easier for us to bounce back when this is all over. We will keep our economic infrastructure intact. We will give businesses the best chance of making it through this.
“The self-employed will also be covered. I know the sacrifices so many of our self-employed have made to build up their businesses and practices and I know how worried they are now,” the Taoiseach said.
The Cabinet this morning approved the ‘Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Covid Bill’.
This legislation, for the duration of the Emergency, will:
- freeze rents
- prevent evictions
- make it easier for health care professionals to re-register and return to work
- enable former members of our Defence Forces to rejoin at the rank they left. We need you to serve your country once again
The Government also approved a framework agreement with the private hospitals. “They will operate effectively as public hospitals under Section 38 of the Health Act for the duration of the Emergency thus adding over 2,000 beds, nine laboratories, critical care capacity and thousands of staff to our health service,” said Mr Varadkar.
List of essential retailers:
- Retail and wholesale sale of food, beverages and newspapers in non-specialised and
specialised stores; - Retail sale of household consumer products necessary to maintain the safety and
sanitation of residences and businesses; - Pharmacies/Chemists and retailers providing pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical or
dispensing services; - Opticians/Optometrists;
- Retail sale of selling medical and orthopaedic goods in specialised stores;
- Fuel stations and heating fuel providers;
- Retailers involved in the repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and bicycle repair and
related facilities (e.g. tyre sales and repairs); - Retail sale of essential items for the health and welfare of animals, including animal
feed and medicines, animal food, pet food and animal supplies including bedding; - Laundries and Drycleaners;
- Banks, Post Offices and Credit Unions;
- Retail sale of safety supply stores (for e.g. work clothes, Personal Protective
Equipment); - Hardware stores, builders’ merchants and stores that provide hardware products
necessary for home and business maintenance, sanitation and farm equipment,
supplies and tools essential for gardening/farming/agriculture; - Retail sale of office products and services for individuals working from home and for
businesses; - Retailers providing electrical, IT and phone sales, repair and maintenance services for
home.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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