Ireland is moving to Level Five restrictions from Christmas Eve with some exemptions

Restaurants, pubs, hairdressers, beauticians, cinemas and galleries will all have to close from 3pm on Christmas Eve. 

Non-essential retail is allowed to stay open but January sales events must be deferred. 

Inter-county travel restrictions will come back into place after midnight on St Stephen's Day. 

There will be an exception for people returning home after that date. 

Household visits will be reduced to one other household from the 27th of December.

However, household visits will be banned from January 1st. 

Additional supports for businesses that will have to close will be provided. 

Weddings will be allowed to go ahead with 25 people up to and including January 1st and will then reduce to 6. 

Taoiseach Micheal Martin says the daily growth rate in confirmed cases looks set to reach 10% and we need to take urgent action, "While we do not yet have firm evidence that the new more virulent strain of the COVID virus is in our country, the rate of growth over the last week tells me that the safest and most responsible thing to do is to proceed on the assumption that it is already here," he said. 

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says nearly 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 will be confirmed tonight, he says that number could double in a week's time, "What we're seeing is not just an increase in cases, but we're seeing exponential growth. And on this current trajectory, it is likely that we will exceed exceed 1,000 cases a day before Christmas, and perhaps 2,000 cases a day before New Year's Eve".

The Tanaiste also says although the measures will be reviewed in January, they are likely to last for a number of months, "It's difficult to speculate about the timeline, but I think it'll probably be towards the end of February or early March before a critical mass of the population is vaccinated," he said. "And I think we need to operate on the basis that these restrictions may well be in place until then, although we will review the situation on the 12th of January," he added.