Written answers

Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment

Covid-19 Pandemic

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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120. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment if a matter raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) regarding Covid-19 restrictions will receive a response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39539/20]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government agreed, on Friday 27th November, the approach for easing restrictions, including a phased move to Level 3 nationally, with a number of exceptions in place for the Christmas period.

From 1 December, under Level 3, as set out in the Plan for Living with COVID-19 non-essential retail may reopen.

Under Level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID-19, only essential retail outlets remained open.

S.I. No. 448 of 2020 Health Act 1947 (Section 31A - Temporary Restrictions) (COVID-19) (No. 8) Regulations 2020 clearly sets out the temporary restrictions under Level 5 of the Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID. A list of essential services can be found at and the list of essential retail outlets at Level 5 can be found at

The Government takes a range of considerations into account when making decisions on public health measures. This includes the latest epidemiological and other health service data and modelling projections. The scale of measures necessary is dependent on a number of factors including the overall volume of disease and the growth rate. In relation to the most recent set of Level 5 measures, in its advice to Government, the NPHET advised that a R value well below 1 was necessary to achieve the levels of suppression required to bring the disease back under control and they further advised that the application of Level 5 measures was necessary to achieve this reduction in R.

Level 5 restricted people from physically going into non-essential stores in order to stop people congregating and browsing for non-essential goods, to limit the spread of the virus. All retailers – essential and non-essential – could however continue to trade via ‘remote ordering’ and fulfil orders for all products including non-essential items, by online or by phone, for home delivery and for collection.

Retailers in Ireland are key partners in the effort to suppress the virus and are playing a critical role in the national response during level 5 trading restrictions. Government is fully engaged with the sector and aware of retailers' efforts to serve their customers and adhere to public health guidelines. I and my colleague Minister of State Damien English TD met with the Retail Forum members on 21 October to remind those in the retail sector, of the need for strict adherence to the public health guidelines during Level 5. Minister English has convened regular retail meetings since entering Level 5. I also met with business and employee representative organisations on Friday 27th to brief them and explain the rationale for the new COVID-19 restrictions.

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