'Two-tier society': Vintners and retailers hit out at idea of indoor dining for the vaccinated
The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said that the suggestion of allowing those who are vaccinated to dine inside is “ridiculous”.
Two vintners’ associations have rejected the idea of fully vaccinated people being allowed to dine indoors.
It comes as the sector has been left feeling “anger and frustration” over the delay in reopening indoor dining.
Indoor dining had been due to reopen on July 5, however, the rise of the Delta variant has caused concern.
Last night, Nphet recommended that the Government should "pause" the reopening of indoor dining and drinking until they can put a "robust" system in place to prove that people have either been vaccinated or have immunity.
The Government has said that pending the implementation of a system to verify vaccination or immunity, indoor services such as indoor dining will not proceed.
The Taoiseach announced in an address to the nation on Tuesday that the Government will devise an implementation plan by July 19 for the return of indoor dining.
The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) have hit out at the idea of vaccinated people only being allowed to dine indoors.
The LVA has said the idea is “ridiculous” while the VFI has deemed it “unworkable”. The VFI added that the way the Government has dealt with pubs over the past 15 months "is shocking".
“Any such system would put every pub, restaurant and café in the country in an impossible position and would also lead to unvaccinated staff being charged with having to police who can and can’t enter their premises,” the LVA said.
Donall O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the LVA, said the system would create a “two-tier society”.
He said: “Nphet has lost the run of themselves and possibly the entire country this time. It is completely bizarre that they would introduce such a system this late and basically try to panic the entire country into accepting a process that would create a two-tier society.
“From the outset of this pandemic pubs and hospitality have made massive sacrifices for the good of public health. We are calling on Government to allow reopening indoors on 19th July, which is a further two-week delay meaning some pubs will have been closed for 489 consecutive days at that stage.
"This will allow for those aged 60-69 to receive further vaccines and will be in line with the date of resumption of international travel. Pubs would then reopen with the current social distancing requirements and licensing hours that currently govern outdoor service.”
Mr O’Keeffe said that the LVA has “no confidence” that Nphet “will recommend the reopening of hospitality this summer”.
Padraig Cribben, Chief Executive of the VFI, said: “The idea that only allowing the fully vaccinated into hospitality venues is highly problematic and probably unworkable for a number of reasons, not least how do publicans and their staff police such a policy?
"Government has consistently stated it would not introduce this type of measure so for it now to change course has left the pub trade reeling.”
Mr Cribben said there is “overwhelming anger” among members that pubs in the North “can open safely for indoor trading since 24 May”.
He asked: “Why are we taking such a markedly different, more conservative, approach?”
Mr Cirbben said that the way the Government has dealt with pubs since the pandemic began has been “shocking”.
“So many reopenings postponed or delayed and now this unworkable plan that will create a two-tier society that can only lead to animosity towards publicans and their staff, who are effectively being asked to become agents of the state.
“As ever, we stand ready to engage with Government to find workable solutions to get hospitality open as soon as possible.”
Following the Taoiseach's address, the Minister for Health said that the Government intends to hold consultations with the hospitality sector to see how best to implement a system that would allow people who have been vaccinated or who had recovered from Covid-19 to dine indoors.
Stephen Donnelly told RTÉ radio’s that he knew that news of the delay of reopening the sector would come as “a big blow” to the sector.
Work will begin, in conjunction with the sector, to introduce a certification system under a model used successfully in many EU countries including Germany, Austria and elsewhere. If other countries could do it then there was no reason why Ireland could not do it, he said.
There were questions about what kind of technology would be used, the timeline, how it could be implemented.
“We want to listen very carefully to the industry.”
When asked about the necessity to vaccinate young staff, Mr Donnelly said that the Nphet view was that this would not be necessary as such staff were already working indoors in hotels using health and safety protocols.
Retail Excellence Ireland, the largest representative body for the retail industry here, has said that today’s Government announcement is a “hammer blow” for the hospitality sector as a whole.
“This will have significant ramifications for business owners and staff around the country,” said Board Member with Retail Excellence, Fergal Doyle.
“We understand that this is a tough decision for the Government to have to make, but this does not lessen the impact on business owners who are fighting for their survival after a terrible year and it is extremely unhelpful that we do not have a timeframe for a reopening plan.
Mr Doyle said that the hospitality and retail industries are dependent on each other in many respects, and the decision would have a huge knock-on effect and that this delay "must be the very last delay" for the affected industries.
He said that a plan to allow indoor dining for fully vaccinated people was bizarre.
“It is not clear how the Government plans to make this work, especially seeing as many staff in the hospitality sector will not be vaccinated themselves by the time this plan would be rolled out.”
Earlier, the CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland said there is “anger and frustration” in the sector this morning.
Adrian Cummins said that an option of allowing only vaccinated people to avail of indoor dining with be “problematic” and “discriminatory”.
He told RTÉ’s that such a plan would not be workable.
“It also raises a number of legal questions around the discriminatory nature of what the Government is pressing forward here under the Equal Status Act.”
Mr Cummins said that one of the first question that came up centred around vaccinated patrons being served by unvaccinated staff indoors.
“Our staff is critical. And we want to make sure that we protect our staff, and we've always done so, during this Covid pandemic.
“That means that now the Government needs to fast track any vaccination of staff, if this is what the government is going to plan.”
He highlighted how hotels are operating as normal, “with no new introduction of a vaccine certificate to gain access into it" adding that staff there are unvaccinated and there have been no Delta variant outbreaks.
He added in a statement: “Restaurant, pub and café owners will now be placed in the unenviable, complex and difficult position of allowing vaccinated customers enter indoors and restricting non vaccinated customers to outdoor dining.
"Such a practice of refusing access to goods and services in currently illegal under equality acts.”
Mr Cummins has called for answers from the Government and said it needs to “reopen Indoor Hospitality with immediate effect in line with our colleagues in Northern Ireland and across Europe.”
A representative of the World Health Organisation has said he would be “nervous” about any Government decision that would see vaccine status being used to allow people to access certain venues.
Cabinet ministers will meet later today to consider a number of solutions which could see fully vaccinated people allowed to dine and drink indoors.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet has suggested that a system should be put in place to see indoor dining permitted only for those who have received the Covid-19 vaccine.
However, WHO Special Envoy for Covid-19 Dr David Nabarro he would be “nervous” if such an approach were taken.
Speaking on , Dr Nabarro said access to vaccines was already “unequal” and that he didn’t want to see “anything to happen that increases the inequalities.”
“If you use vaccine status as a requirement for entry to something, you are also blocking out an awful lot of people from having any chance of participating,” he said.
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