Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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953. To ask the Minister for Health if there are plans to include indoor and outdoor play centres in level 3 restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13414/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As you will be aware, the public health restrictions at level 5 of the Government's Framework Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19 will remain in place until 5th April 2021, when a further review will be conducted. The Framework continues to provide an appropriate mechanism to guide decision-making, and it will continue to be supplemented by more detailed sectoral guidance in relation to measures that apply at each level of the Framework.

On 23rd February, 2021, the Government published it's updated plan for managing Covid-19 - COVID-19 Resilience & Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead. This three part plan reviews the learnings from our experience to date, considers the enormous impacts our efforts to manage and suppress the disease have had on our economy and on our society and sets out a cautious and measured approach to the easing of restrictions over the coming months.

The public health measures in place at any level of the Plan recognise the need to reduce congregation and interactions between people to reduce the transmission of Covid-19. The number of people allowed to gather in different scenarios in the Plan is 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. The measures in place for each level reflect the prevailing disease situation and recognise that we can and must prioritise some activities over others.

Under the current public health measures at level 5 no indoor or outdoor exercise group activities, including those involving children, should take place. Further information is available here -

Information on numbers for indoor and outdoor gatherings for every level of the Plan is available at the following link -

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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955. To ask the Minister for Health if he will report on the parameters that are required to trigger the movement from level 5 to 4 of the Covid-19 restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13431/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As has been the case throughout this pandemic, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) considers a range of different indicators of disease and compliance, and considers those indicators in context, when making its recommendations to Government. There is not one indicator or one specific number which signals that it is safe to ease restrictions, and this will continue to be the case in the coming weeks and months.

The Government's updated plan for managing COVID-19, The Path Ahead, states that the “situation will be subject to ongoing review taking account of the evolving epidemiological situation and available evidence in relation to vaccine deployment, uptake and effectiveness”. The document states that the focus of assessment, based on public health advice, will be on achieving much lower levels of disease prevalence (case numbers/incidence) that can be managed and controlled by public health; that the R number is such that we can be confident we can continue to suppress the disease (e.g. at or below 1); low levels of hospital and critical care occupancy allowing the safe resumption of non-Covid care; ongoing and steady progress with the vaccine rollout such that the most vulnerable are protected and emerging information regarding variants of concern.

The Path Ahead is available online: