Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD called on the Minister for Health to review the new regulations on keeping records of food consumed by customers in pubs and restaurants.
Deputy Murphy said:
“The regulations seem daft in that they penalise all those pubs and restaurants who are observing the law and existing regulations governing their operation as they climb back out of covid-19 closures.
“It’s clear that for public health reasons we need contact tracing information. We also need to be able to protect those restaurants and pubs that are open and following all the rules from unscrupulous operators ignoring them. But the answer to that is not to penalise those businesses doing right by overburdening them with bureaucracy.
“What we have here is poor processes. Poor processes lead to poor outcomes and severely risk he confidence and compliance of businesses and the public. It would have been advisable to bring in the representatives of those who own and operate these businesses and those charged with overseeing the regulations to develop workable solutions to the perceived problem. These regulations smack of desk-based bureaucracy without any real understanding of the day-to-day operation of the businesses concerned.
“26 of 2,785 pubs inspected by the Garda under Operation Navigation in early July had potential breaches. The scale of breaches found suggest that these new regulations are overbearing.”
[ENDS]
4th September 2020