OUTDOOR sport for children continues to be banned to `enforce the greater Stay At Home message', Health Minister Robin Swann has explained.
Mr Swann was responding to a vociferous campaign by parents arguing that children's mental and physical health is suffering from the stoppage of outdoor team sports.
The minister did not contest an application for a Judicial Review against the continued prohibition of children's outdoors sports, allowing the High Court to give the go-ahead for the legal challenge earlier this month.
Lawyers argue the rights of children had been ignored and outdoor sport could be safely and appropriately managed.
Mr Swann told BBC's Good Morning Ulster today that ministers "know it's better for children to be out taking physical activity", but it is about "balancing".
"These are not easy decisions taken by the Executive, even us coming from a health point of view, the physical activity, the mental health benefits of those sports, for young people especially, but it's how we balance that with what is currently still a `Stay At Home' message.
"Until we can start to see the easement of more restrictions, one of the changes we did make, and it's a small, a small step is the number of people who can actually meet up outdoors in an outdoor gathering and that is 10 people from two houses - a small step from the six that we had.
"But it is how we take that proportionate approach to what are many pressing areas and many asks and many calls for things that we know have positive impacts, but also that we have to balance with ensuring that we do not see further spread of the virus again.
"The challenge always comes to finding the balance between that and it's not easy and I don't think that anybody thinks it is.
"We know it's better for children to be out taking physical activity, even just for their mental health aspect as well that brings, but it is the balance about enforcing the greater `Stay At Home' message and the good that we have actually seen it produce over the last number of weeks where we've seen a substantial decrease in the number of people in hospital, the number of people in ICU, and a substantial decrease in our numbers of cases."
