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Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is coming under fire from publicans and his own supporters for introducing new “crazy” rules that require restaurants and pubs that serve food to record all food orders and keep the information for 28 days. .
Angry lobbyists and TDs compared the new rules to monitoring the communist state in East Germany and George Orwell’s dystopian novel. .
Fáilte Ireland, who communicated the new rules to owners yesterday morning, has tried to distance itself from the backlash by saying that it was Donnelly who signed the legal instrument.
“Our guidelines reflect the government’s actions when they are announced and that is what happened here,” a spokeswoman told the .
Fianna Fáil’s backbenchers reacted angrily to the new measures, with a TD, Marc MacSharry, who described the plays as “Stasi-esque.”
In a text for Taoiseach Micheál Martin and other high-ranking ministers, Mr. MacSharry said: “I call for immediate intervention to alter the ‘Stasi’ guidelines issued for restaurateurs and gastro-publicans. This is a step too far and I call on all of you to urgently reverse this authoritative and unnecessary nonsense.
“Today’s guidelines as published are ridiculous. I just sent a text message collectively in the hope and despair that collectively they will urgently address the police state restrictions announced today. ”
The Executive Director of the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI), Adrian Cummins, condemned the way the latest guidelines were communicated to members of the industry.
“The biggest problem is the way things are being done,” he said. “Lack of Consultation. Crafty Ads”.
The Executive Director of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), Padraig Cribben, said the rules are “crazed bureaucracy.”
A spokesperson for the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) described the latest development as “ridiculous.”
“How are you going to help protect public health, knowing what topping was on a customer’s pizza or how their potatoes were cooked?”
Speaking in Dublin, the Taoiseach said that he and the Government want the pubs to reopen and that a new plan will be published on Monday, September 14, to allow the country to live with Covid-19.
He said that the government has acted on the basis of public health councils and that has served the country well.
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Catherine Martin, and Donnelly will meet today with the country’s leading sports bodies, the GAA, the FAI and the IRFU, and the acting medical director, Ronan Glynn, to see if the restrictions of spectators at matches.
Ms. Martin is interested in having restrictions on numbers for events removed, but in a safe manner and in line with health guidelines.
Your department and officials will listen to the concerns and suggestions of sports organizations. The meeting will also allow health officials to consider later how the current restrictions could be addressed, a source said. It is understood that the entrances and exits at the event venues will be discussed, as well as the number of people authorized to attend.
Meanwhile, the Government wants to relax the two-week quarantine for those who come from some foreign countries as part of its new Covid plan.
On September 14, a medium-term Covid plan will be published.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan told Dáil that the plan will allow people to return to some kind of normalcy in the coming months.
This plan is expected to include a relaxation of the rules around international travel, specifically the requirement to restrict movement for 14 days, and Ryan said it would contain “a planned approach that enables connectivity.”
“I asked them to look, as we said we would, at international experience, such as when other countries require trial arrangements for air travel that can reduce the risk of increased air travel and that may allow us, in certain cases, to waive the requirement of a 14-day movement restriction when someone comes here, “he said.
It is understood that Ryan wishes to expand the number of countries on the green list and facilitate quarantine.
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