The prospect of this year’s All Ireland Championships being played have gotten even slimmer. 

The Government have agreed to extend the ban on mass gatherings in the country until August 31. 

The Irish Times claim the move was agreed by ministers at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.

Gatherings of 5,000 people or more will be outlawed.

The start dates of this year's All Ireland hurling and football championships have already been postponed.

And speaking to OTB AM earlier this week, the GAA's Director of Communications Alan Milton said they association hadn't yet discussed the prospect of playing games behind closed doors.

The 5,000 limit may, however, provide a glimmer of hope for SSE Airtricity League sides, with most stadium capacities comfortably under the proposed 5,000 limit.

The measure effectively ends any hopes of music festivals and large outdoor events behind held in Ireland until the autumn.

A statement reads:

All Mass Gatherings have been restricted since 24 March.

Further health advice will be updated in advance of 5 May.

However, there are a number of large scale future events which require licensing and the involvement of the HSE and Garda Síochána, and public consultation in that licensing process which fall to be determined in advance of that by local authorities.

While the issue of restrictions on future mass gatherings is a decision to be taken by the NPHET, in the case of these particular events, and taking account of the impacts on the integrity of the licensing process in the short-term due to restrictions on stakeholder involvement, local authorities have been advised by Government that event promoters should be informed that events requiring licences in excess of 5,000 will not be considered for the period up to the end of August.

This will be kept under review in line with NPHET advice on mass gatherings more generally