With hairdressers and barbers set to reopen in Northern Ireland from April 23, an Enniskillen hairdresser says he has seen an 'influx' of bookings from the Republic ahead of his salon reopening this week.
Speaking with Newstalk, Daniel McRossen - the owner of Daniel Anthony's hairdressers in Enniskillen - said that he's "pretty much booked up until mid-May and some booking were also made into June."
Aside from welcoming the people of Fermanagh into his hairdressers, McRossen said, "we have quite a few clients from across the borders with Cavan, Donegal, and some from Sligo as well."
At present, hairdressers and other services remain closed in the Republic. However, the Government has said that if the public health situation is favourable, hairdressers and barbers likely to reopen in May.
“I would say maybe around 20% of our clientele would be from the south... quite a few of them are existing clients. We've had a percentage of southern customers before but in the last three-four weeks, we’ve had more of an influx," said Mr McRossen.
The business owner also stated that when the hairdressers reopens, they will continue to adhere to the strictest health and safety measures, as they've previously done.
When asked about the process of making a booking, Mr McRossen said would be a 'bit unfair' to question people about how far they'd travelled to attend their appointment and added that it's the individual's responsibility to abide by the health legislation.
"We don't ask the question about where people are coming from and how they're going to get here because our job is more concerned with looking up treatments and how it's best to take care of them," said Mr McRossen.
However, the salon will check temperatures, take contact details and request those in attendance to wear masks.
Last week, the HSE chief executive Paul Reid told the Irish Mirror that people in the Republic of Ireland should 'hold firm' and not be tempted to break public health rules to enjoy the greater freedoms soon to be available up North.
Mr Reid said: “From the HSE’s perspective, we strongly urge the public to continue to embrace the public health measures.
“We are on a really good trajectory out of this and we really want everybody to help see this home.
“The more we do that, particularly with the trajectory we’re on right now, it does give Government a widening of choices and much wider choices in terms of opening up of society and the economy.
“Strengthened border controls have been put in place, in terms of people moving between the border, and you can tell in terms of public messaging and visibility of that as well, so I expect that to continue.
“But ultimately we are really urging to see that we’re so close to seeing this all the way home, that we’d urge people to stick with it.”
“From a HSE perspective, we believe the public health recommendations that NIAC would recommend, and they would go to Government for decision, and again, from our perspective, we are just urging people to comply.
“So whatever NPHET consider, it’s for Government to decide on.
“But ultimately from our perspective, you know, just keep doing what we’re doing, it’s working.”
In terms of the official guidelines, the government website states that individuals can travel within their county or within 20km of their home if crossing county boundaries.
