The government is asking the National Public Health Emergency Team to reconsider the cap on the number of people attending religious services
It follows criticism from the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, who said as few as one per cent of people would be able to attend mass in some parishes.
Meanwhile, a local priest says he was shocked at Friday’s government announcement about a limit of 50 people being allowed in indoor venues.
Fr Michael Toomey of Saints Peter and Paul’s Church in Clonmel says he’s thinking of not resuming mass until that limit is lifted now.
That church can safely accommodate much more than 50 and he says he’s concerned at having to possibly turn people away or implement a ticket system each week.
Speaking to Tipp FM News, Fr Michael says everything’s still up in the air now:
“We had looked at our church. We have 680 seats – that’s what we can fit in – so we looked at 100 spaces. A space could be one person or a family of 3 or 4. And that’s with all the social distancing in place.
“Now they say we can only have 50 people in the church at any one time. That’s basically thrown everything – all our plans – up in disarray.
“For some churches, smaller churches, 50 people would be fine but for bigger churches like mine in SS Peter and Paul’s, it’s just not going to be manageable.”
