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The government agreed to grant gardaí greater enforcement powers against pubs that do not comply with Covid-19 public health guidelines.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar confirmed the move after a cabinet meeting on Friday.
He also said there was a € 16 million package available for pubs that were forbidden to reopen next week.
There would be a 40 percent increase in the restart grant for businesses in the bar trade, he added.
Public Spending Minister Michael McGrath said the Cabinet has also agreed to waive all license fees for closed bars.
The National Public Health Emergencies Team (NPHET) will also examine a new plan that will look at ways the industry can safely reopen, but no date has been set for that.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee said enforcement powers for pubs and restaurants would be improved after an increase over the summer in the number of venues without complaints.
He said that with the sanction of a superintendent, a gardai can order the closure of a bar for one day, and if this is not yet met, seven days and then 30 days.
Varadkar said he couldn’t say for sure if the pubs would reopen this year.
The Cabinet also agreed to ask the Attorney General to examine options to further regulate house parties.
Under the proposals discussed this afternoon, if approved, it will be a violation to host or attend a meeting in a private home with more than six visitors, either indoors or outdoors. This measure was introduced as a guideline last week.
It is understood that the number of people allowed at weddings will remain at 50.
Workers at food and beverage service venues will be required to wear masks under new regulations the government is considering.
Ministers previously signed regulations requiring face covering in shops and other indoor public settings, but this did not extend to restaurants, bars or cafes.
Sources have said that Health Department officials are currently drafting the regulation, but that the plan will make it mandatory for those who work in any establishment that serve food or beverages to wear masks.
It is understood that the matter will be discussed at the Cabinet meeting this afternoon, but will not be agreed until the regulations are ready.
Earlier on Friday, HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry said now is not the time for pubs that don’t serve food to reopen.
Dr. Henry, who is also a member of NPHET, said that, based on international experience, congregated settings and alcohol were not good conditions for transmission of the virus.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Dr. Henry noted that the 14-day incidence has increased from three per 100,000 in June to 33 per 100,000 today. “We had only a single number of new cases per day in June, now we are seeing new cases on the order of 100 to 120 per day.
‘A critical juncture’
“We are now opening schools and that is an important milestone in our Covid experience thus far, because we are recognizing the impact the closures have had on the health and well-being of children, so now is not the right time to reopen. pubs at this critical juncture, ”he said.
When asked about the lower levels of hospitalization and the age profile of the most recent cases (31 years), Dr. Henry said: “We cannot have a social apartheid where we expect older people to obey a set of rules. and younger people do not adhere to those rules, because we know that in addition to harm to children, we are now seeing reports of harm to older people, malnutrition, loss of physical condition, decreased mobility, we cannot prolong the isolation of old people “.
Dr. Henry said the new advice that came in last week was the need to redouble “all of our behaviors,” which meant that now was not the right time to reopen pubs with growing community broadcasts.
“The sequencing of the virus shows that it is the same, so transmissible, so lethal to vulnerable people and the elderly and the very young are not immune to the effects of the virus.”
HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry has said now is not the time for pubs that don’t serve food to reopen. Photography: Colin Keegan / Collins Dublin.
Dr. Henry said the collective goal should be to “extinguish and quell the virus in those home settings and not allow transmission between home settings, hence the regulations that came in last week limiting the number of people indoors and outdoors and there the generic advice for people in addition to washing their hands and distancing themselves is to avoid indoor environments, avoid congregated environments, minimize and ration the amount of close contacts you have ”.
Sprouts
There are nearly 400 active coronavirus outbreaks in the country today, according to officials at the Center for Health Protection Surveillance.
Dr. John Cuddihy, director of the HPSC, which monitors and analyzes the number of Covid-19 cases in the state, said Thursday that officials were seeing a “significant number of outbreaks” today.
Currently, there are 392 active outbreaks of the virus in the state, of which 252 were related to social gatherings in private homes, he said.
A recent outbreak in a pub / restaurant had been linked to 26 cases, which then spread to 10 cases in another workplace. Another outbreak at a restaurant involved 19 cases.
Six cases were traced to an outbreak at a sports club, and further transmission at an associated social gathering resulted in another 19 cases.
Dr. Cuddihy said that an outbreak at a retail store had caused seven employees to contract the virus, as some of the workers continued to work while showing symptoms.
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