DAILY NEWS

Expert group to review limit on church services

Leo Varadkar is to ask the coronavirus expert group to examine the prospect of increasing the number of people permitted to attend religious services, The Irish Independent reported yesterday.

The number of people allowed to attend church services increases to 50 on June 29, and it is planned to further increase this to 100 people from July 20.

But a spokesman for the Taoiseach said the Government has now decided to ask the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) to consider increasing this number.

“The virus is known to spread when people are at close quarters in an enclosed space for a prolonged period of time,” the spokesman said.

“However, large churches can accommodate more than 50 or 100 people – even with strict social distancing measures – and services last less than 90 minutes.”

Mr Varadkar is responding to growing calls for an increase in permitted attendances.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said shops, some of them smaller than many churches, often have more people inside them than large churches.

Bishops and priests have called on the Government to review its restriction too. Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin said the restriction made “absolutely no sense where churches are concerned as it is not even remotely based on physical distance”.

He said the Church had been “extremely responsible” throughout the lockdown, and called on the Government to clarify matters very soon as people have been working extremely hard to prepare for the return to public Mass.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said it seemed strange that a Church with a capacity of 1,500 people, which has been fitted out to conform with social distancing, would only be allowed to have 50 people present, “while we all see a situation in which large retail outlets are brimming with people”.

One Dublin parish has highlighted its difficulties. Our Lady of Victories on Ballymun Road could seat 1,700 people at services prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Parish priest Fr Frank Reburn said the church was now ready “after many weeks of planning, co-ordinating and observing all protocols” to seat 280 people with social distancing.

However, under the latest guidelines, he said, “we can only welcome back 50 when we reopen”.

Report by John Downing and Sarah MacDonald.
Courtesy The Irish Independent.
First published June 22 2020 02:30 AM.

See also –

‘One size fits all’ rule on indoor gatherings unfair on churches, archbishop says
Irish Times
Diarmuid Martin says some churches cannot hold 50 people while others could fit 1,500
[[] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/one-size-fits-all-rule-on-indoor-gatherings-unfair-on-churches-archbishop-says-1.4285223 ]


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