Ireland Covid19 lock-down extension to hit cycling | Sticky Bottle

Irish cycling will be hit for a bit longer due to an extension in the lock-down, though now late April or early May is emerging as the time when things may change generally in the Republic (Photo: Toby Watson)

Irish bike racing and sportives look set to remain in mothballs well into April as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Covid-19 restrictions would remain in place for that period.

“We are looking at a continuation of severe restrictions
right into April,” the Taoiseach said in an interview with the Irish Mirror
newspaper.

It means that, apart from a slow and phased return of schools
through March, there would be no easing of restrictions next week when the new
Covid-19 plan was unveiled by the Government.

The National Public Health Emergency Team has advised that not even construction should re-open during that period, meaning any return of competitive sports, including cycling, is not on the agenda for now.

However, that news will perhaps come as no surprise to people, including those in the cycling community. It also increasingly appears that late April or early May is the period when things may be able to change for the better in the Republic generally, though only time will tell.

“It is going to be challenging for people, it’s been a long lockdown already and I would say to people it’s worth it,” Martin told the Mirror.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin (above) said a longer lock-down would be hard but would be "worth it" though Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said Martin never suggested Ireland would be in Level 5 lock-down until May

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Micheál Martin continued: "What’ll happen next will be modest, I wouldn’t overstate it in the sense of announcements and so on. We are looking at a continuation of severe restrictions certainly right into April.

“We’ll have some look at construction but then again it
won’t be a full return to construction, we’ll assess what the public health
advice is.

“We’ve already certainly indicated that beyond Easter
we’ll look at it again but until the end of April you can look at significant
restrictions and we’ll review it after that then because we’ll have to see
where we are.”

Many media outlets took Micheál Martin’s comments to mean
the Republic would be in a Level 5 lock-down for nine weeks until May.

However, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar spoke to RTE’s News at One
programme today and he denied the Taoiseach had spoken of such a lengthy or
severe lock-down extension.

“He didn’t say we were going to be in Level 5 until May
or that we were going to be in Level 5 for nine more weeks,” Varadkar said.

He suggested the media reports about what Martin had said,
had gone much further with predicting the length and severity of the lock-down
restrictions than Martin had in his own comments.