NI Christmas bubble period to be legally cut to one day only

We understand that Stormont Ministers have decided to reduce the number of days people in Northern Ireland can join a festive bubble from five, to just one.

It follows similar decisions elsewhere in the UK because of a new variant of covid-19. Until now, NI was the only UK region where bubbling from 23rd December until 27th December was still allowed. However, we understand that this is soon to change.

The decision was said to have been taken at tonight's emergency meeting, called by four out of five Executive parties, in light of developments in England that have provoked other European countries to block UK flights.

Stormont sources also tell us that Executive ministers have also been debating amending the 1967 Public Health Act to temporarily ban travel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein has voiced support for the move but there are practical issues around how quickly such a ban could be introduced, given the time it would likely take for the Department of Health to draw up regulations to bring it into effect.

The DUP position is that UK internal travel is already banned from Tier 4 areas in England, so there is no need for added Stormont legislation to enforce that.

The party believes the responsibility for stopping flights and ferries within the UK is an issue for the UK Government and has also raised concern that Stormont could leave itself open to compensation liabilities if it was to legislate on the issue.

It is understood Health Department officials have been asked to undertake further work to examine issues around restricting travel into Northern Ireland.