Ireland

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will bring in “decisive” nationwide COVID-19 restrictions on Monday but will stop short of reintroducing the kind of lockdown imposed earlier this year, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said on Sunday.

The government rejected a recommendation by health chiefs two weeks ago to jump Level 5, the highest level of COVID-19 curbs, and instead tightened restrictions in a varied regional approach that Harris said was no longer sufficient.

DUBLIN, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong said on Thursday that China is grateful for the kind help offered by the Irish people and government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and is now willing to work together with Ireland as well as all other countries to win the battle against the pandemic.

The Chinese ambassador made the remark while delivering a speech at an online event to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, which both fell on Thursday.

DUBLIN, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin on Friday evening declared a Level 3 response for the country's capital Dublin in order to suppress the rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the city over the past few weeks.

The Level 3 response, a new mechanism introduced by the Irish government to take corresponding restrictive measures according to the different risk levels of the pandemic in the country, will take effect from midnight Friday and remain in place for three weeks until Oct. 9.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s foreign minister said Dublin should not overreact to reports that Britain may seek to undermine its Brexit withdrawal agreement but warned that such a move would be a very serious breach of trust and fundamentally undermine ongoing talks.

London is reportedly planning new legislation to override parts of the agreement and create frictions in British-ruled Northern Ireland where special arrangements had been made to avoid a hard border with Ireland to the south that could be detrimental to a peace agreement.

DUBLIN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Irish government has nominated two candidates as Ireland's next European Commissioner, according to a government statement released here on Friday.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin "has today written to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to propose for nomination as Member of the European Commission Mairead McGuinness, currently vice president of the European Parliament, and Andrew McDowell, until recently vice president of the European Investment Bank," said the statement.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called on European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan to give the public absolute assurances he did not break COVID-19 when he travelled to a golf dinner that has caused outrage in his native Ireland.

Marin said Hogan was adamant he did not breach a local lockdown while he was staying in County Kildare but given there was a discrepancy between the commissioner’s public statements on the issue, he needed to provide a full public account.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s agriculture minister resigned on Friday after he said he had damaged the national effort in fighting COVID-19 by attending a social event that could have breached health regulations.

Dara Calleary was among more than 80 guests at a hotel dinner hosted by the Irish parliament’s golf society, the night after he and his cabinet colleagues significantly tightened nationwide restrictions to try to rein in a rise in infections.

DUBLIN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Irish Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has been elected as President of Eurogroup, according to a government statement issued here on Thursday.

Donohoe was elected by his fellow euro area finance ministers at a video conference of the Eurogroup held earlier in the day, said the statement, adding that the other two candidates for the office were Nadia Calvino, Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of Spain, and Pierre Gramegna, Minister for Finances of Luxembourg, according to the statement.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is expected to put his name forward later on Thursday to join Spain’s economy minister Nadia Calvino in the race to head the Eurogroup of 19 euro zone finance ministers, a government source told Reuters.

Proposals for the influential post must be submitted by the end of Thursday, a day before members of Donohoe’s Fine Gael and two other Irish parties vote on a deal struck last week to elect a new government following an inconclusive February election.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland’s two dominant centre-right parties have agreed to form a coalition for the first time in a deal that will also put the Green Party at the centre of policymaking and end a political stalemate triggered by an inconclusive February election.

The deal, which must be ratified by members of the three parties, is expected to make Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin prime minister in the first half of the government’s five-year term before Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar returns in 2022.