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Opposition members have broadly welcomed the acceleration of the roadmap announced today.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that plans to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions are being accelerated and the country will move to 'Phase 2 Plus' on Monday.
Among the measures are that from 8 June people can travel anywhere in their own counties and it is planned to remove all domestic travel restrictions in Phase 3 on 29 June.
Groups of up to six people can meet both indoors and outdoors for social gatherings.
Organised outdoor exercise, sporting, cultural or social activities of up to 15 people may take place where social distancing is observed.
Public libraries can also open on Monday.
Here's a quick recap of the new measures announced to move to the next phase of lifting Covid-19 restrictions. | Follow live updates: https://t.co/KT4vRqZ5pl pic.twitter.com/eAd8LpUwIf
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 5, 2020
The Fianna Fáil Leader, Micheál Martin welcomed the measures announced today.
He said he is particularly pleased with the decision that people will be able to move freely within their own counties given that in many counties, community transmission had moved to a very low level.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News he said there needed to be movement in the area of non-Covid illnesses within healthcare setting such as cancer, heart disease and other urgent conditions.
He said he believed the measures announced today would create some space to enable this to happen.
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Mr Martin said the key issues of testing and tracing must be "up to the mark" and there must be a quick turnaround time.
He said some of today's measures had been discussed informally between the Taoiseach, the Green party leader and himself.
He said the country needed to be able to live with Covid-19 while simultaneously creating economic activity.
Opposition members have broadly welcomed the acceleration of the road map announced today. Fianna Fáil said the move was significant, while the Green Party said it was good news for domestic tourism. | Read: https://t.co/P0j2ZBhD4o pic.twitter.com/eG3bMxDH4P
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 5, 2020
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described today as a "good day" and said that speeding up the country's emergence from Covid restrictions was "great news all around".
On RTÉ’s Six One, Ms McDonald said that the emergency measures were necessary but said they could not go on forever.
On the decision to cut the Pandemic Unemployment Payment for part-time workers from 29 June, Ms McDonald said that as long as parts of the economy remained out of action, these unemployment supports needed to remain in place.
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She added that many childcare workers and providers do not have clarity on the safety measures that need to be in place before they open their doors at the end of the month.
She said that this workforce would need to be supported until the end of the year and she did not think this sector was unique.
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said it was good news and would be welcomed particularly by the tourism industry as Irish people might holiday at home this year and that might create and save certain jobs and help the economy.
He said it was on the back of Irish people putting their shoulder to the wheel.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said his party had called for there to be four phases to the plan. He said the people were ahead of the politicians.
However, he warned that the travel restrictions could not be managed by gardaí and any limits to travel had effectively been lifted already.
Earlier, Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath said today's move is a very significant step towards a new normal and he had no doubt that the overwhelming majority of business owners and people would continue to act responsibly.
He said there would always be some risk but it was carefully calculated and measured.
Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said while he welcomed the plan, it had to be done in a safe way.
He said testing and tracing needed to be in place and he also warned that there were issues with childcare as people go back to work.
