Covid-19 Latest Level 5 Restrictions Announced

Dear Member,

As you are aware, the entire country has moved to Level 5 of Ireland’s Plan for Living with COVID-19 and further restrictions were announced yesterday the 6^th of January.

These further restrictions state that all non-essential services should remain closed. As notified previously, Brokers are deemed to provide essential services. In October the Government published a list of essential services, this list contains “Financial and legal activities” defined as “services relating to financial and legal activities… financial, insurance and banking services (including post office and credit union services) provided by a financial services provider”.

This means that you and your employees are allowed to travel to work where you are deemed to be carrying out essential services and you are unable to undertake that work remotely. Members of the public are entitled to leave home to access essential services where that access is required for essential reasons.

Please find below an outline of the new changes: 

ACTIVITY & GUIDANCE

• Schools – closed until 1 Feb with some specific exceptions for final year Leaving Cert students, special education and specialised settings
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) – the resumption of the ECCE programme is delayed until 1 Feb
• Childcare – closed with exceptions for vulnerable children and children of essential workers
• Construction – construction will close from 6pm on Friday 8 Jan, with limited exceptions
• Retail – essential retail only. Click and collect from non-essential retail outlets will no longer be permitted after existing orders are fulfilled. Click and deliver will continue
• Travel into Ireland – no travellers from Great Britain or South Africa until 9 Jan. All travellers from those locations after that date must have a negative PCR COVID-19 test result (COVID-19 not detected) within 72 hours prior to arrival.

If you have any questions in relation to the above please contact Rachel McGovern at rachel@brokersireland.ie

Brokers Ireland will continue to work on your behalf and do our utmost to keep you fully informed as updates become available. We welcome any member queries that you may have and we ask that you directly email queries to the following contacts:

1. General – cathie@brokersireland.ie
2. Compliance/Central Bank – compliance@brokersireland.ie
3. Life/Financial Services – rachel@brokersireland.ie

You may also call the Brokers Ireland landline on 01 6613067, to speak to one of our staff.

Kind Regards

Diarmuid Kelly

CEO, Brokers Ireland