Relaxation of Restrictions, Part XII *Read OP For Mod Warnings*

Was out at a dinner party tonight and get the distinct impression people are completely done with it, waiting for the government to announce the end of all restrictions, and will be very angry if they don't.

Even the most vocal of the group who's spent the last year arguing with me about everything from masks to getting vaccinated to (in the beginning) whether there would even be a pandemic declared, is now completely unwilling to entertain restrictions continuing beyond the end of January without a clear "back to a completely normal, 2019-type March" plan. Most of the rest of them the same, and these are people who would have been on the government page pretty much the whole way through

I agree. With a death rate of 2 in 100,000 for Omicron, flu looks like a mass killer. Omicron presents a fantastic opportunity and our best chance to get back to true normal. We have to open up now! Or next variant will beat us to it.

There are no medical reasons why would anybody need a vaccine for Omicron and such should be the nphet advice.

I don't see any need to wait until the end of January. It's clearly f<cking obvious now that we don't need the last rounds of restrictions introduced. We should be dropping them next week instead of end of January. What difference will it make to wait an extra week. Absolutely none. Might help out a few those working in the industries thay are currently curtailed though. GAA league also starts. Going to look ridiculous with a 5k limit in Croker at the end of January.

With the exception of pharmaceutical companies and their shareholders, you forgot to mention.

Great sense of optimism around atm but we have to remember it's 'NPHET' who are making the decisions

All should be known by next weekend and let's hope its a full reopening with no farcical rules

it shoudnt be summer reopening. It should be now reopening. It suggests to me that we will still have light restrictions come the summer. This is unacceptable. There will be absolutely no legitimate circumstances to extend the emergency legislation. Zip.

I can see a lot of restrictions going next month but masks and covid passes will be retained for the foreseeable.

The replys are unanimous to that tweet, I don't think I've ever seen as much support for immediate lifting as that tweet.

The time to open is now. They are about to waste the best opportunity to get back to normal that they have been granted since the start of this pandemic. Leo is promising he will be pushing for a more open summer. Christ, these guys are idiots. Period.

It looks like deep down they are hoping that new variant comes along so that they can justify all those 2 years of sh1t show they served us with.

" rather one that is in line with our European peers " You see it's all been programmed out already. France, Spain & Italy will all be locked down till Summer so Ireland has to follow.

You are correct it will be February.

Europe is such a double edged sword. On the one hand it is good to have some parity on laws and regulations but on the other it gives politicians/prime ministers the ability to talk amongst themselves how to implement policies outside of countries' and EU parliaments and then use that as leverage. The main gripe is with the latter.

The EU is not one thing..

Was informed yesterday by friends, rightly so too, that COVID is now a banned topic! With these past two years we've tended to forget that at times.