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TRADESPEOPLE SUCH AS plumbers and electricians can still visit a person’s home to work, despite the new restrictions advising no visitors are allowed in another household.
Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris clarified the position in this regard on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne this morning, and said people still need to take precautions if there are workers in their home.
He said: “I really want to put this to bed because I’m getting a lot of questions on that too. So if you’re a plumber or an electrician or builder or a painter, you’re going to work.
“And if you’re doing the job and someone says you’re going to work in their home - yes, you’re allowed. And that was allowed in the past.”
From tonight until 10 November, a nationwide restriction on household visitors will be imposed as part of the government’s latest attempts to address the worsening situation with Covid-19.
People are advised not to visit other households indoors or in their gardens; exemptions will be made on compassionate grounds and essential reasons like caring or childcare.
Harris said this morning that although tradespeople are allowed come into the home to work during this period, people should still take proper precautions.
“So ventilation, try leaving the windows or doors open, wear facemasks,” he said. “We also like to have a cup of tea or a biscuit and a chat… but that might not be the brightest thing to do right now.”
The former health minister said that he was aware that people were exhausted and fed up with restrictions but said we now have a “very, small window” to try to “stop going back to the very, very restrictive situation we saw in March and April”.
He urged employers to show leadership and allow people to work from home where possible. He also described the new restrictions on household visits as a possible “game changer” in reversing the worrying trends being witnessed from the virus.
Harris said: “What we are trying to do here is make sure that people can have a Christmas and make sure that we can try and get together in some capacity, in some way, with friends and family over Christmas. That’s what we’re trying to do. To do what we did in the first wave, to get on top of it, suppress it and get the numbers back down.
“We genuinely believe if people take on board the advice now that we’re asking, particularly in relation to household visits and the working from home, we believe there is a potential for that to be a game changer.”
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And I can’t go to see my elderly parents at their home. But I can sit in a beer garden for a few hours and have a drink with them.
@Derek Moean: and also book in to a hotel and meet them.
@Derek Moean: Beer garden is a controlled environment, your parents house isn’t.
It’s tough but only for 4 weeks if people behave.
@Derek Moean: You can also go to any bookies all day long as they’re deemed ‘essential!’ Absolute bonkers.
@Derek Moean: It seems stupid. But the point is to avoid a situation where you end up using their toilet after a few beers and entering the house. Covid spreads like wildfire inside houses.
@Derek Moean: yes. The reasoning was people are more relaxed at home… and don’t enforce the guidelines as much as they should resulting in the unnecessary spread of the virus.
In a beer garden it’s the job of a bar to ensure the rules are followed to the letter to protect everyone. If that can’t be adhered to and bars or customers flout the rules then they will obviously close too. (so please behave everyone)
It’s up to everyone to continue to make sacrifices now so that we might be able to have some sort of Christmas with our families.
@Derek Moean: You can also go bushing in a field but the official advise is don’t go to the beer garden with your friends or family. No gathering’s in other settings was more or less the wording in the statement.
Instead of treating us like kids they have advised rather than ruled but take from it what you will.
@Derek Moean: bring a light bulb with you and pretend you’re an electrician
@Justin Gillespie: it won’t be. It will happen again and again because the contract tracing is either underfunded or CPL are siphoning off too much cash.
@Justin Gillespie: jesus man, your respect for anyone in a batman’s rigout to a hiviz jacket is jaw dropping. Have you left your cave since spring at all
@Derek Moean: you can go to see your elderly parents that’s known as compassionate grounds Stephen Donnelly said it himself on Newstalk
@Justin Gillespie: I would think the parent’s house is far more controlled than a beer garden.
@Derek Moean: not such a big sacrifice if you wish to protect your parents from a deadly virus. It’s about using your common sense.
@Justin Gillespie: ah justin ,you are stretching it now ,well its the bumbling government that are really,but how in tje name of god wouod a beer garden with strangers be safer than your mammys kitchen…
@Justin Gillespie: my parents house is mad alright. They’ve been swinging from the chandeliers and snorting coke from strangers’ cavities since this all began
@Gerry Campbell:
I get it does sounds stupid in theory, but here you go:
Beer garden:
- 2 metre distance per group.
- sanitizing.
- masks entering and exiting.
- Place sanitised before next group
- limit on time spent.
- outdoors
- if rains or gets cold, go home.
- bar has responsibility to enforce it.
Mammys kitchen:
-No social distancing, hugging, lifting/kissing the kids
- indoors.
- no masks
- unlimited time spent.
Say were in Mammys garden… If rains or gets cold you go inside.
- no sanitizing of area once you leave.
- mammy not enforcing rules.
@Justin Gillespie: are you for real
@Justin Gillespie: doesn`t explain why tradesmen are allowed into your house
@Justin Gillespie: Ah justin cop on now, theres essentially 0 controls.
@Justin Gillespie: so if parents house is not controlled why is tradesman allowed enter ?
@Aidan O’ Neill: waiting 5 days for a call after close contact alert on app. Just been told I’ll get a call
@Derek Moean: whats your point…there is good reasons for above…
@padr4: i had a leak last week and needed plumber to fix it as was coming down from upstairs….if i could not get a plumber my house would be ruined…..
@padr4: tradesmen (or tradeswomen) have to wear masks in the home, the same way you do in a shop.
Say they fixing a sink, they are in the bathroom. You’re not standing within 2 metres of them are you?
In parents house as an example a lot will be sitting around a table in close contact drinking tea, not wearing masks. Touching milk and tea pots etc. We know this is how the virus spreads from person to person.
And listen… For those asking how come this and that etc. Its in an effort to REDUCE the spread not ERADICATE the spread.
It’s reducing it by one method but trying to make businesses continue etc at the same time without resorting to a full lockdown.
@Justin Gillespie: “Beer and Controlled”…you just said those 2 words. No such thing… Unbelievable. You can also meet in a flippin bookies, think about that now, a “bookies”, back away all day and see ur da & ma too but god forbid you go to their uncontrolled front garden now.
@Derek Moean: i think a bit of personal common sense here should prevail..my granny is 74 and lives on her own, i will call with mask and keep distance clean hands etc. Its basically to stop people socialising in groups in areas they can’t control. Best of luck telling me i can’t visit her or she can’t visit me. I might just enroll her on an apprenticeship.
@Justin Gillespie: if people behave ….seriously that has to be the most sheepish comment ive read to date….
99 percent of children display no symptoms justin ….they just carry it and spread it ….schools ONLY test if there are symptoms justin so who exactly are they testing? justin
These childrem mostly have young parents justin who most likely are asymptomatic also .
These asytmptomatic parents go the gym or the pub or the hotel and spread it…..contact tracing is performed and hey presto the pub or hotel or gym becomes the source ….
Wakey wakey …..engage common sense please
@Justin Gillespie: if you think it’s just for 4 weeks then you are gravely mistaken.
@Derek Moean: you can if you want. There’s no law against it.
But as they are the people at risk, i think you just don’t understand what’s going on.
So if I offer to paint my mothers house I can visit….okay.
@Padraic McDonagh: plonker
@Padraic McDonagh: do u need it spelled out in capitol letters…
@Denis McCarthy: Chill out and get a sense of humour Denis
@Denis McCarthy: see this is why we are in this situation people coming up with their own stupid interruptions of a rule. If everyone fully complied then chances are we wouldn’t be looking at level 5
@Padraic McDonagh: Sure, you could offer to do that. But be sure to explain to your mother that you only offered as a means of getting around rules put in place to keep her and those like her out of intensive care. I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.
@Padraic McDonagh: Unfortunately Padraic, your attempt at a bit of humour went waaaay over the heads it seems. Sign of the times unfortunately!! Bite first… Ask questions later…
@Tom Harpur Photography: if the government complied we’d be in even better shape. How are we 8 months into a global pandemic and still importing the virus through airports, ports without ANY real controls. How about they focus on that, rather than locking people in their homes.
@Padraic McDonagh: I’m sure your mother will be delighted. She’s probably been asking you to for years :)
@Denis McCarthy: These people are dead right. Government are terrible. Are they living in the real world?!! This is a global virus and will spread regardless. We can slow the spread by being sensible yes but lockdowns as you can see from the above comments make no sense to normal life or for the economy. Youve bought what they have sold you. Another sheep too many. Watch this and educate yourself please https://youtu.be/gJq8MBgYJ4Q
@Denis McCarthy: u double plonker
@Padraic McDonagh: Brill, am off to Woodies & B&Q to get the gear for the jobs needing to be done.
Will just write instructions on back of copies of unsigned will docs, by way of incentive.
Will pick up some Prosecco & Redbreast so we can supervise proceedings from our viewing window box.
This lockdown is showing some better prospect already.
@Mocheolthu: evidence?
The biggest cause of the spread now is schools. People know it and when you add that to the fact that everybody can meet up at restaurant’s,bars,building sites are still packed and hairdressers are still open,there’s no chance people won’t keep visiting their friends and relatives homes. This will not be a game changer,we’re going into a full lockdown. They knew it when they ignored NPHET,they know it now, the delay is purely down to politics and people will die because of it.
@Tom Thumb: The figures don’t support your assumption about schools, there has been no increase in under 18s catching Covid19 since the schools went back. This is not just in Ireland by the way.
@John McG: They don’t have to get sick in order to carry it home.
@Vanessa: Exactly!
@Vanessa: But they would have infected a member of their household or friends etc & be tested as a close contact and would be part of the figures.
@Tom Thumb: biggest number of deaths is again nursing home related
@John McG: that’s simply not true. Cases in kid aged between 5 and 14 have trebled in the last 7 weeks. So twice as many is 7 weeks than there were from March to August 30th. Doesn’t take a genius to see where the cases are coming from.
@John McG: not necessarily. It can be on the 4th person by the time somebody gets symptoms and we only contact trace back 48 hours
@Aidan O’ Neill: Not sure where you are getting your figures but here is where I got mine https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/coronavirus/novelcoronavirus/surveillance/covid-1914-dayepidemiologyreports/COVID-19_14_day_epidemiology_report_20201014%20-%20website.pdf
If you go bact to the 1st Oct the the 5-14 has actually reduced.
@John McG: and as the children weren’t affected not part of the school statistic
@John McG: Given that kids are far more likely to be asymptomatic,the information can’t be accurate. The amount of children who set off a transmission chain is obviously being underestimated because not only has our country seen a consistent rise in cases since schools returned,most countries have. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/09/30/largest-covid-19-contact-tracing-study-date-finds-children-key-spread-evidence
@Tom Thumb: people will die anyway. In fact 30,000-40,000 people die every year.
@John McG: they only test people with symptoms john…now if 99 percent of kids are asymptomatic just exactly who are they testing ?? Wakey wakey
So a plumber can visit your vulnerable parent? Or you can go on the piss outside, travel to Penny’s or visit a gym, but God forbid you visit your parents in their back garden. Do they roll a dice and make up these rules on the spot?
@Conor CoCo Moroney: if your vulnerable parent has a burst pipe or the heating isn’t working of course the plumber can come to the house and everyone in the house must protect themselves as best they come. People need to grow up and use their common sense.
@Teresa O’Halloran: well said,absolute essential service!
@Conor CoCo Moroney: you can also visit your vulnerable patent, it’s very clear essential and compassionate visits are absolutely fine.
To paraphrase Leo Varadkar on Claire Byrne Live, “this hasn’t been very well thought out”.
They dont sound like they know what their doing mixed messages and no communication!!
@Paul Meaney: That is the problem right there Paul. The messages and advice are not coming from a single source and is causing widescale confusion. The there is confusion, rules go out the window.
@Paul Meaney: just use your common sense. They can’t hold your hand through everything.
@Teresa O’Halloran: fair point Theresa but allowed having people come into your home to do “work” and not allowed to visit family I think is wrong.
Any restrictions on the milkman? There’s an awful lot of hairy babies
Have you ever come across a plan that is so inconsistent with what was originally set out… the government is making decisions on a day to day basis rather than following the plan they set out. The levels they brought in mean nothing anymore, it’s what they decide on a particular day.
This constant changing and inconsistency does not generate positivity around this government and i’d imagine it will reflect hugely when next election comes around.
@Cormac: exactly cormac. The restrictions have become an a la carte menu where they can pick and choose from any level as they see fit…when it was supposed to be a set menu and they could only apply the restrictions in each level and not choose from outside that level. But hey…try tell them that. How annoyed would you feel if you were a chef in a restaurant with only a set menu for the customers to choose from…but they kept ordering bits and pieces from different menus. It would leave you uncertain, frustrated and completely unsure as to how to prepare your kitchen. There is virtually no confidence now in this Living with Covid Plan because they keep treating it like an a la carte menu when its a set menu ministers…and it was designed as such so that we all had confidence that we would know exactly what happens in each stage. This seeds confusion and the fragile confidence is gone now!!!
wondering how many other houses a tradesman has been it,
@frank_1916: as many houses as find themselves in need of hot water, radiators and electricity
So a plumber can visit 4/5 house’s per day 5/6 day’s a week, yet a family member can’t come once a week. And we have to take this as logical.
@Ian O Hara:
It is logical. It’s exactly your mentality that has us in this situation in the first place
@dublinguide.ie: you obviously dont know that the majority of work carried out in peoples homes is not “essential emergency repairs” , it is renovations which in most cases the family still lives in the house while the work is being carried out.
But god forbid you visit your elderly parent once a week in a house no 1 else has been to.
Crazy posts on here. Covid seems to have got into people’s intelligence. Just use your common sense, and do what’s right. This is not a drill. This is the real thing.
@Teresa O’Halloran: but if you have a drill, you’ll be grand
Oh yeah, he’s the minister for higher education. He’s the perfect one to let us know who can and can’t come into our private homes
@Anne Marie Devlin: he was obviously asked the question and is a TD so would have been involved in all meetings about deciding what the next steps would be so would obviously know the answer to the question
I hope that everyone is calling their local FF and FG party members out when they are having guests over….
Every minute they add more so what’s the point in making nosies about restrictions
Awh thanks Simon, you’re very good.
Explain the logic
@John Hartigan: Business good, people bad
it would be good if they didnt just make it up as they went along and drip feed us the idetails. I am supposed to be getting a tradesman to come and do some refurb work on my house in a few weeks time. Under the current restrictions he can come. But we have no word of what will be the story after November 10th. If we go into Level 4 or Level 5 will the same tradesman be able to work in my home??? There is a lack of direct specific details on what can happen in each level, and they seem to be making it up when they have to. So whats the story if I have the builder come on the 5th November, demolish half the bedroom, strip all the tiles from the bathroom, remove the toilet and shower and then on the 10th November we go to level 5 and the builder has to leave and half my house is in a shambles and I have no toilet or shower??? We need much more than these general promouncements, we need specific details which wont change….like nowhere in Level 3 does it say no visitors to your home…but its whats happening from tonight. Make a plan and outline its details…and stick to the plan ministers. Stop treating it like an a la carte menu where you can pick and choose from the whole menu as you see fit, and stick to a set menu where all you can choose from is the bits in that column…and nothing else from any other. And please state exactly what will be going on with tradespeople in each level, and dont just drip feed us the info.
@John Sheppard: Even in the total lockdown tradespeople were allowed to call in emergency situations and I can’t see why that would change under Level 5. Having no toilet or shower facilities would definitely fall into the ‘emergency’ category so your builder would be allowed to at least continued to get that sorted. Quick question though. If the builder disconnects the toilet and shower on the 5th and your worried that Level 5 could be called on the 10th and he won’t be able to reconnect them, how will you manage for toilet and shower facilities between the 5th and the 10th ??
Perhaps if families applied for jobs in the meat plants there would be no problem in meeting up.
FFS Can we just have one person telling us what to do. Mr Holohan and Mr Glynn need to take control of communication again . They are our only hope
Simply laughable ….no other words …why do people still keep voting for these people …ive just been informed by the journal that this comment may be percieved as toxic …says it all ….and since i have added in “ive just been informed etc ” its no longer toxic …. we cant critizise
At first thought it said Transpeople…
@Traxedo: I was the same.
So basically all you’re allowed do now is go to work, go home, go to work, repeat. If they could ban household visits they could ban going to work that could be done remotely.
@Aaron: and go to the pub, cafe, restaurant, park, shop, library, beach…
15/10/2020
Data last Updated
Confirmed Cases in ICU
29
recorded at 11am and 7:30pm
Admissions to ICU
2
in last 24 Hours
Discharges from ICU
2
in last 24 Hours
Acute Hospitals Confirmed Cases, Admissions and Discharges
Click here for more information
Confirmed Cases in Hospital
238
Admissions to Hospital
26
in last 24 Hours
Discharges from Hospital
12
in last 24 Hours
Laboratory Specimen Testing Figures
Click here for more information
Total Tests Completed
1,372,722
Total Positive Tests
49,642
Total Positive Rate (%)
3.6
Tests Completed
16,126
in last 24 Hours
Tests Completed
101,270
in last 7 Days
Positive Rate (%)
6.2
in last 7 Days
If the govt really believed this was a serious pandemic do you think it was wise to change the minister for health in the middle of such pandemic ? . Its widely accepted that harris was a brilliant minister for health (i dont concur) and this is essebtially the same govt so why change in the middle of pandemic. Could the reason be its not really a pandemic and its not taken seriously by this govt or is it realistic to change a highly regarded minister for health in the middle of a pandemic???. Perhaps his change is linked more to ministerial pensions … Harris now has health minister pension so staying in dept of health would not be good for his future finances perhaps.
To replace someone in middle of pandemic who is considered by majority to be effective does not make sense from any point of view except a financial one .
@Tony Kennedy: wrong ….common sense is the answer to this problem ….ill be very interested to see our national death toll for this year …unfirtunately those figures wont be available until next year but ill put money down now they will make very interesting reading ….strange how there are no numbers reported for road deaths heart attacks etc and amazing how no one has died or even caught the flu this year so far …take precations and you will be safe …wash your hands and wear a mask …
@tim howard: it’s October. Flu season hasn’t started yet
Does this apply during Level 4 restrictions, can carpenters, plumbers etc continue to work in people’s homes??
@Mike Keane: exactly my query too Mike. Its making it up as they go along and then drip feeding us the information. Im due to have a tradesman come and demolish walls and do tiling and fit a new shower, toilet etc in a few weeks time. What happens if on 10th Nov we go to level 4 or 5 and they suddenly decide that he cant come and do any work in my home??? Will I be left with a bedroom and the bathroom all upside down and all the materials like plasterboard, tiles, bags of adhesive, grout, hardwall plaster etc not to mention a toilet, shower enclosure etc just littering my home waiting until he can come back and finish the work??? We need absolute details and we need them for each level and we need them now….and we need them to be set in stone and not changed. Otherwise how the hell are we to get this stuff done???
Hope the people of wicklow finally see this bluffer for what he is next election.
Harris is a big lost to Dept of Health
@trebloc01: yes but he had to move onto another department otherwise he would not be able to collect another department pension …. hes already got the health ministerial pension …wake up
@trebloc01:
@trebloc01:
@trebloc01: He was at an advantage having had the experience of 18 previous Covids
@trebloc01: I think Harris apologised for every big loss under his 4 year tenure. From the 3 billion loss building an extension to St James Hospital to the incredible 600million overspend in 2018.
@tim howard: not how it works but continue
Delighted now that my 74 year old gran served her time as a chippy all them years ago…shame she got no papers to prove it tho..
what about the chimney sweep man? did they really forget about them. ITS ABSOLUTE CHAOS with 3 governments , no one has a F$%£ ing CLUE what the other is doing or saying, i rest my case.
Obviously tradespersons have some kind of magic immunity to the virus……it just shows you what an absolute nonsense the restrictions being imposed on our most basic freedoms really are. This situation is not about a virus, its about the taking away of your human rights. People need to wake up and stand up to this disgraceful hoax
@Martin Mason: so don’t call a plumber when you are without running water.
@Karl: You obviously don’t get the point I am clearly making. Technically I now cannot visit my landlady to pay the rent, for example. Utter nonsense
halloween partys cancelled BUT we can hold them at schools because people from hundreds of households attend school, pumkins are known to scare away covid virus so everyone needs a pumpkin , thats the latest advice
We have reached a pinochle in the pandemic and 7months we still have petulant excuses from people looking for reasons not to follow advice from experts and the government. Shut up, do as your asked and be part of the solution instead of bitching about it. Some a questioning if schools, GAA or pubs are to blame but I put a huge portion of responsibility squarley on the shoulders of whingers, begrudgers and the yellow vest brigade who insist on large protests. Spreading the disease amongst themselves and then the rest of society
The reason we need to do this is because if the number of cases stay where they are or rise, there are not enough resources, ICU beds or staff to handle the extra patients. In fairness to the government they did not have enough time to get this sorted, they only knew about the low number of beds 20 years ago.
harris can do one
If you need to see your elderly parents or an elderly neighbour that lives alone, go and see them. It’s medical advice that you don’t visit, it’s not against the law. Use cop on. Ware a mask , wash your hands, keep your distance, be gone in a few minutes.
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