The Taoiseach has announced a raft of measures and new restrictions to cope with the spread of Covid over Christmas.
The new measures will begin on December 7th and will remain in place until January 6th.
All nightclubs are to close and bars and restaurants will revert back to the restrictions in place up until 22 October which means midnight closing time.
There will be a maximum of six people sitting together in restaurants and bars and there will also be no loitering in bars.
All bars will have to operate a table-service only policy and customers must show their digital Covid cert.
Masks will have to be worn at all times apart from eating and drinking.
People can only visit four households including their own over the Christmas period.
Taoiseach Michael Martin stressed there will be financial supports for those within the hospitality sector who suffer as a result of the new measures.
Earlier, the CEO of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI), Padraig Cribben said today is a “pretty dark day” for the hospitality sector.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he shares “the disappointment and frustration that this will cause” as he announced the new restrictions.
“You did all that and as a cotunry we pulled it back, with enormous effort, our hospitals held,” he said. “We have stablised the surge”.
“However just as getting a handle on it reports ebgan to emerge of a new and potentially more dangerous version of this virus,” he said, adding that the government will “do whatever we reasonably can to stop this new variant circulating in the country”.
