A Tipperary restauranteur says they’ve been hung out to dry by the Government and plans to allow indoor dining.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced yesterday that the planned resumption on July 5th was deferred for a number of weeks due to concerns over the Delta variant of Covid-19.
One of the proposals for when indoor dining does get the green light is that it would be limited to people who are fully vaccinated.
Niamh Quinn from Flanagan’s Lane restaurant and café in Tipp Town says the onus on policing it will fall on her and her staff.
“If a family came in – two parents and two children – the children were not vaccinated which means we’d have to tell them they can’t come in. Now they might be regulars and they would be very upset.”
“Then if we did let them in people would say those children aren’t vaccinated. People will be saying they were left into this other restaurant.”
“I think it’s very unfair that they are pushing it all back on us as the businesses – they’re making this announcement about this passport but the buck will stop with us.”
Niamh also says they had a number of bookings taken on the presumption that indoor dining was to resume next week.
“We would have been stocking up and we would have been hiring staff. It’s going to be disheartening now to tell three or four people now that I don’t have a job for you when I thought they’d be starting next week. Again that’s me having to tell them not Micheál Martin.”
