Adrian Cummins: Time to learn from our Covid mistakes

Now is the time to have a national conversation about what living with Covid looks like, what it means, how we pay for it, and how it will impact our lives

Thu, 23 Dec, 2021 - 15:44

Adrian Cummins

The most famous phrase used 30 years ago was “Annus Horribilis”. It was a phrase used by England's Queen Elizabeth II to describe the year 1992.

The hospitality industry, not just in Ireland, but across the world, could use the same phrase for the last 21 months.

As we start to look at the year ahead, hopefully we will have learned some lessons on how to live with Covid into the future.

From the outset, we have never had a proper plan so that society and our economy can function in a meaningful way, while protecting our public health, and allowing commerce to thrive in parallel.

Now is the time to have a national conversation about what living with Covid looks like, what it means, how we pay for it, and how it will impact our lives.

The World Health Organization's Michael Ryan put it best when he described the only way to defeat this is by working together.

We must see a common focus and approach to supporting all aspects of Ireland’s tourism offering so it may prosper into the future.

We are thankful to the Government for the supports they have given us.

While we may have a difference of opinion around the commonly-used phrase “government will not be found wanting”, there will be a requirement for long-term subsidisation of hospitality and tourism industries — sectors which may be restricted intermittently in the future, if our leaders’ predictions come to pass.

The big-ticket conversations that must be had in early 2022 are around protocols for ventilation in hospitality, specifically the use of HEPA filters, the debt write-off and restructuring of hospitality and tourism businesses, specifically around tax, and following on from that, the development of a long-term strategy and recovery plan for hospitality and tourism.

Firstly, regarding the conversation about ventilation and HEPA filters, what is required here is similar to what the long-running debate around antigen testing needed.

We need an expert working group, established by government, with the terms of reference to deliver a plan for use of high-tech, clean air filtration systems within hospitality and tourism businesses that mitigates against Covid and reduces the risk factor, allowing for greater relaxation of restrictions.

What we don’t want is more unhelpful comments, similar to snake oil salesmen, that were used in the past regarding antigen tests.

The second major priority is the write-down of debt within the hospitality and tourism industry. We did it for the bankers and the builders during the crash, we need to do it again for the sector that employs one-in-10 people in Ireland and is comprised of 20,000 SMEs.

Thirdly, we need a long-term strategy for living with Covid and the economic recovery of both hospitality and tourism.

While we use the cliché “we’re all in this together” it sure didn’t feel like it when the pub and restaurant sector were excluded from nearly every recovery task force established by the Government in 2020.

It is important that we have an inclusive approach to how we build back our industry where the large-scale employer bodies are included in discussions at all times with regard to what a plan would look like, and how it could be implemented, in collaboration with government and relative agencies.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

Barrack Obama used the above statement as he campaigned for the presidency of the United States in 2008.

We must change how we approach Covid into the future.