The government on Monday announced that from midnight today that Level 5 restrictions will come into place in Ireland. This announcement has significant effects on the industry and effectively means that it will be closed for 6 weeks until 1st December, with a review after 4 weeks.
We wanted to assure you that we have been making every effort for our sector to continue to operate since the start of the pandemic and most recently across all levels of the Framework, in collaboration with Swim Ireland, making the case for gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools to remain open.
We have highlighted the efforts that staff and facilities have made to ensure that they have been operating to the highest standards in relation to public health, and raising the health benefits for those participating from a physical and mental health point of view. This is of particular importance coming into the winter period when much of sport moves indoors.
In furthering our efforts we have written to the Taoiseach and other senior government Ministers regularly, making the case for facilities to stay open across all levels of the Framework. We have met with Minister for Gaeltacht and Sport Jack Chambers on a number of occasions, individually and along with other sporting bodies, and have submitted to government departments and politicians regularly to gain support for our members and the industry. We have numerous engagements with Sport Ireland and the Department of Sport with regard to the challenges in the sector.
We will continue to make representations on behalf of our members and the industry to gain supports during closure and when restriction begin to lift, we will continue to advocate for facilities to open at the earliest opportunity. We know that our industry has a significant contribution to make to benefit the public health of the nation in the context of Covid-19 and we will continue to play our part in that effort.
Joe Cosgrove
Chairperson
Ireland Active
