Exemptions for club activities removed as local GAA goes into lockdown

As of midnight tonight the government's Living with Covid restriction plan will move to Level 4 in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, while there will be additional restrictions applied to Level 3 with all club GAA activities now suspended.

Under the move to Level 3 last week GAA clubs were allowed to operate training and games within certain restrictions, but the GAA themselves imposed a ban on all club games and now those restrictions have been reinforced by the government.

Several clubs across Meath are reporting cases of Covid-19 amongst their members and in many cases clubs have opted to close their facilities for the foreseeable future, while others have applied a two-week shutdown.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney admitted that he has concerns ahead of the resumption of inter-county action this weekend, including Meath's visit to Parnell Park to play Dublin on Saturday night.

"We do have concerns in relation to sporting fixtures. That's why we've removed the exemption that would allow club championships to proceed. They now can't proceed," said Minister Coveney.

"The only sporting fixtures that we are going to see are effectively high-level, inter-county sport behind closed doors - managed very carefully by the sporting organisations that are responsible for that.

"That's the decision we've made for now."

Ireland saw a record number of 1,095 cases yesterday, including 185 in Meath, and leading Westmeath talisman John Heslin has questioned the wisdom of playing games.

"At what stage does the "Inter-county return badly needed in these grim days" commentary end?" he asked on Twitter.

"I am concerned from a health and welfare perspective, both individually and collectively, for those contributing to the inter-county season."

The counter-argument was put forward by Armagh forward Stefan Campbell, who tweeted that he does feel at risk playing football and views the prospect of the NFL and Ulster championship as "the one thing that has kept most of us going" and to remove it now would be a 'catastrophe'.