Hospitality reopening: Sector to get clarity from Government by Monday

Government officials today met with representatives of the hospitality and tourism sectors.  Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

A memo for the reopening of indoor hospitality is due at Cabinet next week, the Irish Examiner understands, as industry representatives said there was “an absolute commitment” by Government that pubs would have clarity by next Monday on the issue.

Government officials today met with representatives of the hospitality and tourism sectors, following last week’s meeting of the Hospitality and Tourism Forum.

Officials from the Department of Taoiseach and Health met with the Restaurant Association Ireland, the Licensed Vintners Federation, and Vintners Federation of Ireland.

The meeting was described as “good” and “frank” by sources. The meeting was chaired by the secretaries-general from the departments of Tourism and Enterprise.

'Feedback from the sector'

"This was a useful opportunity to build on last week’s meeting, at which the Government took feedback from the sector and heard their suggestions," a Government statement said.

"Today’s meeting sets out three things to be done over the period ahead: Progress on the acceleration of the vaccine programme, Niac now says we can use all vaccines for all age groups, which means we are speeding up the administration of the vaccines to everyone, with vaccines becoming available to the 18-35 group this week.

The statement went on to say work would continue "to scrutinise the progression of the Delta variant, here and elsewhere, and work with the sector to determine ways in which indoor activities and businesses can be safely reopened."

Following the meeting, hospitality representatives said there was “an absolute commitment” by Government that pubs would have clarity by next Monday on the reopening of indoor hospitality.

Representatives said their understanding is that 1.8m paper-based certs for proof of vaccination are to be posted out in the coming weeks as a digital app will take longer to develop.

Those in hospitality told the Government that this was not the preferred or favourable option for them.

Antigen testing

The use of antigen testing remains on the table, representatives said, however, no decision has been made.

Adrian Cummins, of The Restaurants Association of Ireland said the group will meet again on Thursday.

“We're working towards the 19th of July in the hospitality sector because that is when international travel starts and you will have possibly tourists coming into the country from that date onwards,” he said.

“So we need to try and have a plan in place that is viable and workable as soon as possible.” 

A number of options were pushed by the industry, Mr Cummins said, and “there was a very robust conversation about the viability of all the different options”. 

"There is a difficulty. We've asked the Government to give us the legal opinion from the Attorney General around this that this is okay. 

“Obviously there will be a huge issue from operators how you police this, and how when customers come to the door and make pre-bookings, so we have to firm those up, nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in.”