Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers appeared on Today with Claire Byrne on Monday morning to discuss further details on the return of spectators to spring events over the coming weeks and months.

Will you outline what the plan is?

I think it’s very positive. We have a clear pathway now back for spectators. In June at any games whether it’s in Blanchardstown or Ballaghadreen there can be 100 people at those games, and it’s great to see people back playing

Who controls that now?

There will be clear protocols from the sporting bodies and in fairness to clubs and teams they managed that very well last year. The in July that will move to 200. and in any stadium with a capacity above 5,000 that will be 200 in June and 500 in July.

That is a baseline and in fairness, many people want to see their children playing games.

And above that, we have outlined 15 pilot events across a number of sports, including GAA, Rugby, Football, Athletics and Golf.

We have tried to get a mix between male and female games and in different parts of the country.

What we are trying to do is create a controlled environment. On ticketing, there will be a named person on each ticket and that will be checked on the way into the ground. There will be specific times for access and egress so we have that staggered.

There will be a code of conduct including encouraging active travel, there will be mandatory mask-wearing for attendance, there will be physical distancing and there will be active zones within each stadium.

People would know from going to the Aviva or Croke park there will be tight control on where to enter the stadium and how to get to that point.

What we are trying is to build confidence. After each event there will be a debried and the lessons from each will be shared across all sports.

It will start low in order to work out the logistics.

There will be no requirement for vaccination?

No, but that could come into play later in the year where there may be a vaccination bonus to allow us to increase numbers.

Will there be antigen testing?

Each game will be assessed on an individual basis. There will be a liaison group for each one involving the HSE, local authorities, health and safteety experts and the sports and the venues.

We have to look at transport capacity and people getting to the grounds.

There will be contact tracing tied to each ticket which will be held for 28 days, to enable us to help the HSE if there is a case linked to the event.

Everything is being done to mitigate risk, do it properly, train and educate staff and stewards so everyone knows.

That was the advice from the sporting bodies who have taken into account best practice from around the world?

What about policing? Meeting up with friends and having take away pints?

There will be full local area plans including the Gardaí with safe routes and zones around the ground being controlled to avoid a negative impact on local areas.

We are talking a lot about control and rules and regulations but this is about people enjoying their matches, giving them an opportunity for them to get back to doing the things they enjoy in a safe environment.

It will be 5-10 % initially and then the plan is hopefully to increase as we go.

Who will get the tickets?

That will be down to each sporting organisations.

How about pitches in local parks?

If you take a local U10 match there probably won’t be more than 100 so that will be handled in a sensible fashion.

 

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