After PM announcement, NI Covid plan to be reviewed on Thursday - First Minister

Q Radio News

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster said the Stormont Executive listened carefully to what Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out in terms of the lockdown exit plan.

“We’ll be reviewing our plan on Thursday which we hope to set out to the Assembly on Monday of next week," she added. 

“I know that people want to see a plan, they want to see an exit route out of this lockdown, but what we must ensure, like the Prime Minister, is that this is the last lockdown and that we leave lockdowns in the rear-view.”

In terms of schools in England reopening on March 8, Mrs Foster said Education Minister Peter Weir’s preferred option was to have all children back at school on that date.

“Unfortunately our health advisers didn’t think that that was the right way forward and I understand that we have to take a safe and sustainable way forward, but I hope we can now revisit that again because I know full well from my own personal experience that the kitchen table is no substitute for a classroom,” she said.

“I am not a teacher, teachers are professionally trained, and therefore it is vital that we get our young people back into schools as soon as possible.

“We are setting out our pathway next week, we are very conscious of various dates in the Northern Ireland calendar, we are also conscious of the fact that Mother’s Day is coming up.

“I very much hope that we can give optimism next Monday, that’s what I want to give – brighter days are coming, people do feel a sense of optimism, not least because of our vaccination programme… over 32% of our adult population have now been vaccinated, nearly 500,000 vaccines have been deployed and that gives a lot of hope to a lot of people.”