ON FRIDAY, THE government announced that Ireland would be re-opening at a faster rate than initially indicated, with the last phase of re-opening now in July rather than August.

For example, the original plans for Phase Two included allowing small retail outlets to open and four people to visit another household for a short period. Now, from Monday, all retail outlets – excluding shopping centres – can open and up to six people can be in another household.

Hotels and pubs would’ve opened in late July and early August under the initial plans, but can now re-open at the end of June. In the case of pubs, they’ll have to sell food to be permitted open on 29 June. 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said acceleration of the roadmap “has been made possible because of the considerable sacrifices that you have made to restrict the spread of the virus and protect others”.

“We are making progress. We are heading in the right direction. And we have earned the right to be hopeful about the future again,” he stated. 

Dr Tony Holohan said last month that Covid-19 had been effectively extinguished in the community and the number of cases has remained low in recent weeks. However, the public has been advised it’s vital to keep maintaining guidelines around social distancing and hand hygiene into the future. 

So, what do you think? Do you think the accelerated plan to re-open Ireland is going at the right pace?