Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1221. To ask the Minister for Health the measures being taken to avoid hunting becoming the cause of the spread of Covid-19, for example, in respect of unnecessary travel, close proximity to others, crowds of more than 15 persons and persons travelling through miles of farmland. [32705/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the country has moved to level 5 of the Government’s medium-term strategy for dealing with COVID-19: Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19.

This Plan sets out a Framework of 5 Levels which outline the broad measures which will apply depending on the level of the virus at any given time. The Plan is designed to help everyone – individuals, families, organisations and sectors – to better understand, anticipate and prepare for the measures that might be introduced to contain transmission of the virus.

As I'm sure you can appreciate, COVID-19 spreads when individuals and groups come into close contact with one another, enabling the virus to move from one person to another. COVID-19 is infectious in a person with no symptoms, or for the period of time before they develop symptoms. The number of people allowed to gather in different scenarios in the Government's Framework are based on a review of international practice and the judgment of public health experts. It seeks to balance the risks of different types of gatherings against the desire to allow normal activities to proceed in so far as possible.

At level 5 of the Plan, people are asked to stay at home, with certain exceptions, and must exercise within 5km of home. No matches or other sporting events may be held with the exception of professional elite sports and senior inter-county gaelic games and horse and greyhound racing, which may continue behind closed doors. All other training activities should be individual only. It is possible to meet with 1 other household in an outdoor setting which is not a home or garden, such as a park, including for the purpose of exercise. It is appreciated that these measures are difficult, but they have been put in place to protect public health.

The Deputy may wish to note that recreational hunting is not among the exemptions provided for under the current regulations - the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (COVID-19) (No. 8) Regulations 2020)(S.I. No. 448 of 2020).

The Government's guidelines for exercise and sporting events at all levels of the Plan are available at: . Level 5 guidance from Sport Ireland is available at: .

Current regulations and other Statutory Instruments related to the Covid-19 pandemic are available here: