Coronavirus Ireland Live Updates: Ryanair customers could be waiting up to six months for refund

Follow the latest coronavirus news in Ireland and across the world on the Independent.ie live blog.

14:00 27/05/2020

Tesco rolling out Covid-19 automated system to control entry to grocer’s stores

Shawn Pogatchnik

An automated entrance system is being rolled out across Tesco Ireland outlets to manage and limit the flow of customers into its stores.

Tesco said the system has been developed by the Co Kildare unit of retail tech and logistics firm Wanzl.

It says what it calls a “3D body imaging system” uses a camera to sense and count each arriving customer.

12:20 27/05/2020

Kelly says some Covid-19 restrictions 'lack common sense' as he defends Taoiseach's picnic

Cormac McQuinn

LABOUR leader Alan Kelly said some coronavirus restrictions are lacking in common sense as he defended Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's decision to go for a picnic in the Phoenix Park.

He also said that the two metre social distancing rule will have to be reduced to one metre as the country reopen for social, economic and healthcare reasons.

Mr Varadkar's share a with friends days after a senior official in his Department Liz Canavan discouraged people from doing so.

Mr Kelly said: "it's not really a big issue for me to be frank. I really don't care.

"I disagree with him on his politics. I disagree with him on lots of things but he is working very hard.

"I accept that and if everyone doesn't get a break I don't think you can from a mental health point of view continue.

"What he does in his own spare time as long as it's within the requirements we all set down."

Mr Kelly said some of the coronavirus restrictions are lacking in common sense.

He said: "I think common sense needs to be the phrase we all are guided by as we come out with this"

Mr Kelly added: "We're going to have to look at... how we change the roadmap and aspects of it are going to have to be pulled forward."

"There is a time - it may not be yet - but there is a time in the coming days or weeks where we're going to have to change to the one-metre rule because it's just not practical or common sense not to do so."

12:00 27/05/2020

Travel into Ireland plummets below 1pc of normal levels - CSO

Shawn Pogatchnik

Barely 16,000 people entered Ireland by air or sea during the entire month of April - below 1pc the normal flow of travellers.

The Central Statistics Office called it “an unprecedented collapse in overseas travel to and from Ireland”.

Whereas more than 1.7 million travelled here in April 2019, only 12,100 arrived last month into Ireland’s airports nationwide and just 4,000 by ferry.

Three-quarters came from Britain, and just 1,100 from the United States – which in April a year ago disgorged nearly 155,000 people into the State.

The figures were just as barren in the other direction, as just 17,700 people left Ireland last month by sea or air - 99pc lower than in April 2019.

The most popular destinations from Ireland were to Britain (8,800), the Netherlands (2,000) and France (1,400).

Only 500 flew to the US, down from more than 158,000 a year ago.

The report found that not one soul travelled to Ireland from Italy, Spain or Switzerland for the entire month, while about 100 people each made it to Italy and Spain – none to Switzerland. Travel also totally halted in both directions with the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

Today’s report did not compile any arrivals or departures with the UK via the Border.

It also offered no breakdown of travellers in either direction by nationality because, since the March lockdown, CSO enumerators have stopped gathering data on site at airports and ferry terminals.

11:30 27/05/2020

ICare set to buy 23 homes to avoid families being evicted

Charlie Weston

APPROVED housing body iCare has negotiated a multi-million euro loan facility from AIB to allow it to buy more homes from distressed mortgage holders.

The €30m loan from AIB will allow it to purchase another 23 homes and rent them back to the families that live in them, under the State’s mortgage-to-rent scheme.

This will avoid them being evicted.

10:00 27/05/2020

Euro zone bond yields edge down; focus on EU recovery fund

Independent.ie Business Desk

Euro zone government bond yields edged down on Wednesday, easing off from Tuesday's highs, as investors waited for proposals about the EU recovery fund which are due to be presented the European Parliament.

The European Commission will announce a plan to help the EU economy recover from its coronavirus slump with a mix of grants, loans and guarantees exceeding €1tn that raised controversy even before it was announced.

Hopes for a co-ordinated fiscal response to the coronavirus crisis have been boosted since France and Germany made proposals for a €500bn recovery fund.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to present a proposal for the EU recovery fund to the European Parliament later on Wednesday.

09:00 27/05/2020

Ryanair customers could be waiting up to six months for refund

Aoife Walsh

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has said it could take up to six months for customers to receive a refund for flights cancelled due to the pandemic.

Mr O'Leary said the airline is working through a three-month backlog of flight cancellations.

"We have about three months of flight cancellations imposed on us by governments, we have a total liability of about €1.2b," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

He added that the airline is "a third of the way through" the backlog, and that €400m has already been refunded through refund vouchers.

He said it is "likely to take anything between three to six months" before all refunds have been issued.

"There's no issue over being refunded their money, they just have to wait some time over the next three to six months," he said.

Ryanair will begin flying to European countries from July 1 and will be requiring passengers to wear face masks.

Regulations legally requiring passengers to fill out a Covid-19 passenger locator form will come into effect tomorrow.

Passengers must provide details of where they are staying and will be asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

People who fail to fill out the form will be fined €2,500 or face a prison sentence of up to six months.

Mr O'Leary said the measures are "awfully ineffective."

"A quarantine that gets imposed only after you use public transport to get to your destination is not a quarantine, it is simply political gameplay," he said.

Responding to Mr O'Leary's comments, HSE chief clinical officer, Dr Colm Henry denied that the new measures are ineffective and said we should take great care "before we jump in and reverse those significant gains we've made it since March 27."

"At this point in time, we will not be advising people to fly," Dr Henry added.

08:45 27/05/2020

Country’s largest private landlord currently ‘cannot foresee’ Covid impact

Ellie Donnelly

Ires Reit, the country’s largest private landlord, currently “cannot foresee” the impact the coronavirus will have on the company.

Ahead of its AGM today, Declan Moylan, chairman of Ires Reit, said the pandemic has created “significant uncertainty” in every aspect of life.

The company is “confident that the quality of our property portfolio and the strength of our balance sheet provides great resilience during this period,” Mr Moylan said.

08:00 27/05/2020

Virus expands grip in many areas as US nears 100,000 deaths

Associated Press

South Korea reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in weeks on Wednesday and India reported another record single-day jump of more than 6,000 cases, as the pandemic expanded its grip across much of the globe.

Still, optimism over reopening economies from business shutdowns to fight the virus spurred a rally on Wall Street, even as the official US death toll approached 100,000.

Outbreaks are still climbing in much of the Americas, while many countries in Asia and much of Europe are making steady progress in containing the deadliest pandemic in a century.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday that there were no Covid-19 patients under treatment in hospitals.

The nation took aggressive and early action to stop transmissions and has reported only 21 deaths. It has 21 active cases out of 1,504 confirmed and probable ones.

07:20 27/05/2020

Hong Kong braced for biggest day of protests over new Chinese laws

Natalie Lung

Hong Kong is bracing itself for what could be its biggest day of protests in months, with pro-democracy groups calling for a general strike against China's latest moves to increase control of the city.

Protests were planned for today near the Legislative Council building in central Hong Kong, where lawmakers plan to hold a hearing on a bill that would criminalise disrespect toward China's national anthem.

They are also fighting against China's plans to impose a national security law which opponents fear will curtail essential freedoms and criticism of the Communist Party.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which represents 145,000 members, has called for a general strike. More than a dozen high school student groups have also issued a joint statement urging peers - newly returned to campuses following months of closures because of the coronavirus - to strike.

07:15 27/05/2020

WHO halts trial of anti-malaria drug over heart and death fears

Tim Elfrink

For months, US President Donald Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment.

He has called the anti-malarial drug a "game changer", asked patients "what do you have to lose?" - and even announced he was taking the drug himself in an attempt to ward off the coronavirus.

This week, however, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced it had temporarily halted its global trial of the drug, citing a new study which found a significantly higher risk of death among those taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine.

07:00 27/05/2020

Not a huge amount of evidence either way on one or two-metre social distance, says head of expert group

Eilish O'Regan

There is a lack of evidence for whether the physical distancing rule to protect against the spread of coronavirus should be one or two metres, the chair of the advisory group behind the decision has said.

Dr Cillian de Gascun, head of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, whose group advises on key pandemic measures, said the two-metre distance was introduced in March because coronavirus was "an emerging and dangerous" pathogen at the time.

Opting for two metres was "prudent and cautious", he added.

He was speaking as pressure grows from the hospitality trade and businesses to reduce the two-metre rule to one metre to allow for more customers.