Eamon Ryan has revealed that the Government will consider reintroducing mandatory mask wearing if cases of Covid continue to spike.
The Greens chief was speaking after CMO, Professor Breda Smith, and the HSE’s chief clinical officer, Colm Henry, both recommended donning masks again on public transport and in crowded places over Christmas, including when shopping and at mass.
Concern is growing in medical circles that the deadly virus is making a comeback - Covid cases are up 75% since the start of the month - and experts have advised people that they should wear masks.
Read More : County-by-county Covid-19 case numbers amid big spike and new advice on masks
However, this has not been made mandatory by the Government yet.
But Mr Ryan said that the three leaders of Government, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tanaiste Micheal Martin and himself, could reconvene within an hour of the Covid situation worsening and make drastic decisions on issues like mask wearing.
A Government source last night told the Irish Mirror: “I can see it coming in, it would be sensible and would face no opposition from any of the ministers.”
Mr Ryan said: “We’ll have to meet on that and obviously listen to the Chief Medical Officer’s advice.
“The mechanisms we established during Covid served us well.
“So we’ll have to reconvene, the Department of the Taoiseach will obviously lead on that, and my department, the Department of Transport will obviously feed in on that as well and provide our input.
“But first and foremost, we would have to convene and .I’ll wait for the Taoiseach’s department to lead on that.”
The minister was asked if this could happen this weekend and he added: “We’ve been in Christmases before, remember, the variant arrived just before Christmas and within half an hour I was on the phone to the UK minister saying we should shut down air travel.”
On Wednesday, Professor Smith told RTE’s News at One that the country is facing into the “eye of a respiratory virus storm.”
She added: “Over Christmas we will see large scale social mixing, we will also see mass transit of people on public transport going from East to West, or West to East, or North to South, be it on whatever mode of public transport.
“And one thing we all can do to protect the vulnerable on the public transport, but also ourselves, is by wearing a mask.
“Our population and society has demonstrated how we can act in solidarity with one another and that we do care for one another.
“I think if we are to wear a mask, now is the time to wear it.”
The country’s top doc added: “Wear that mask on public transport and also in the shopping period over the coming week, it’s really important to wear a mask on public transport…. There are a lot of vulnerable people who do attend religious services, so I think it’s important that you make that key decision.
“Number one, if you have symptoms, that you don’t attend the service, number two, if you are in a vulnerable group, it is recommended that you would wear a mask if you are going into a crowded setting.
“And I think as a population then, people who are not in a vulnerable population category, we can always make that protective measure to care for others and to ensure that we reduce transmission.”
READ NEXT:
Irish counties luckiest and unluckiest with scratch card wins named
Irish girl writes heartbreaking letter to Santa asking for dead brother home
Met Eireann pinpoints likely arrival of snow as Christmas forecast published
Passengers blast prices as Dublin Airport pub re-opens after refurbishment
'I give €30 to my postman but not everyone agrees with Christmas gesture'
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
