Eamon Ryan made this announcement when speaking on Sunday morning.
The legal exercise limit could be reduced from 5km to 2km if Covid case numbers in Ireland do not decrease.
Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan announced this news on Sunday morning.
Speaking to Newstalk, Ryan was discussing the measures that the country can take to ensure that hospitals do not get overrun over the coming days and weeks.
He said that “a really strong effort” in the next week from everyone can stop hospitals becoming overrun, and that decreasing “the level of contacts we have” would be crucial.
Speaking about other potential ways of decreasing cases, Ryan said that we may go back to a number of the restrictions we had in place in March of 2020.
“Whether that’s, for example, reducing the travel restrictions from 5km down to 2km which we did last March and April and a range of different measures that you could look at then,” he said.
He also said that arrangements will be made with private hospitals to pursue further beds if needed, and that all non-essential procedures should be postponed in the event of hospital capacity problems.
Ryan also said that the plan remains for schools to reopen on 11 January, but that the situation will be monitored.
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