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CABINET HAS SIGNED off on new legislation to reopen indoor hospitality on a phased basis.
While no official date has been set for businesses to reopen, the Government envisages the legislation will come into force sometime next week “hopefully before the weekend”.
The legislation needed to make the system legal will need to be passed by the Dáil and the Seanad this week, then be signed by the President before it can come into effect.
The legislation will run until 9 October, after which time any extension must be approved by the Dáil and Seanad.
Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin said the new laws are about balancing the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) with the need to open hospitality.
“We can’t throw all the doors open and allow everyone in,” Martin told reporters.
So, who will be allowed in, and how will it work?
The legislation is aimed to be passed by the Dáil this week and to come into force next week, or by 26 July at the very latest.
Once approved, the plans will see indoor hospitality reopen to people who can produce verifiable evidence of full vaccination or immunity status.
The EU Digital Green Certificate will be used as an indoor dining pass, however, the use of other medical documentation is still under consideration.
Although the digital Covid cert allows people who have a negative PCR test result to travel around the EU, only fully vaccinated people with the pass or those who can show that they previously had Covid-19 will be permitted to dine indoors.
The first phase of the reopening will allow the people with evidence of full vaccination or immunity (within the last six months) entry to venues. Minors will also be allowed access to indoor hospitality, once they are accompanied by a vaccinated or immune guardian.
Unvaccinated hospitality workers will be permitted to have a drink or meal in their place of work.
People vaccinated in Northern Ireland, the UK and the US will be allowed to dine indoors if they have verifiable proof of vaccination.
Fully vaccinated diners will be permitted a stay for one hour and 45 minutes – Taoiseach Micheál Martin explained earlier today that the time limit was being implemented out of an abundance of caution.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said this evening that the time limit will only apply where tables are less than two meters apart.
Minister Catherine Martin confirmed this evening that there will be fines of up to €2,500 for forged documents or for premises that are not checking certificates.
Varadkar said gardaí will not be going into venues to check individual vaccine passes, but they will be checking if venues are making those checks.
“What we feared was repeat of Berlin D2, and then having to all of a sudden then put in place new laws and an inspection regime. So we thought it better to have the provision there at the start, so that if things do go wrong. We have the powers we need.”
The new measures will be kept under review by the inclusion of the hospitality sector in the Workplace Health and Safety Monitoring Oversight Group.
What’s next?
Minister Martin said this evening that she will set up an indoor hospitality guidelines working group, with Fáilte Ireland, the Department of Health and the HSA, with a view to operationalising the guidelines. It is planned that its first meeting will be held tomorrow.
Detailed operational guidelines for reopening, due to be published by Fáilte Ireland in the coming days, are said to place a strong emphasis on the importance of effective ventilation – including increasing air flow, air extraction systems and the use of CO2 monitors.
Under phase two, the use of antigen testing may be deployed after the initial reopening of indoor dining is evaluated – facilitating access to those not already vaccinated.
Phase three will be around access and how it can be provided with rapid antigen tests, pending the work of the Government’s expert advisory group on rapid testing, chaired by Professor Mary Horgan.
Given the legislation has a sunset clause of 9 October, Minister Martin said the law will only last as long as necessary but could be extended by three months.
There is also a provision in the bill to extend this system to other indoor settings that are currently closed, such as bingo halls or bowling alleys.
- With reporting from Gráinne Ní Aodha
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there are a lot of people out there willing to help. just don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask.
Best thing you can do is talk. It will be hard but by god does it get easier
Or write it down to try to make sense out of it but talking works…
Some good news for men for a change. Would do no harm to add the text number in the list of help numbers instead of being stuck in the article. Fair play to Console. At least some group seems to be concerned about men.
There need’s to be a place to go like for DVAM. So glad that the fellas are using it and for talking. Huge step. Proud of you all.
I think that is due to stress, how people treat each other, how relationships are suppose to develop according to what people are told, the westernisation of how a man should be a certain way to act to show that he is a man. That the only way to be a man is sex the whole time with strange women, aggression, fighting, treating others with contempt, being hard and nasty as well as ready to start a fight with anyone…
This nonsense is coming from U.S. television telling men that they are not men unless they are total b….ds.
People are too busy chasing images of what they should be from pop culture, TV and the media and it has become a race to be popular by doing what others tell them in order to be popular. In order to be part of a consumerised society and at its core is bullying and greed.
@ Michael Sands. So what way should a man be then?
Rossa, Be himself and not try to be like others, some say to find what you do not like in your life to get an idea to find out what you do like or want in your life then.
Too many are told what will make them happy rather than trying to find this out for themselves. I think what makes people happy is finding their life’s purpose as people are social, they need to be amongst people and not being on FB etc but with people. Secondly, to feel that they have done something meaningful with their time as in work, hobbies etc instead of playing games or watching TV, THAT THERE IS SOMETHING TO SHOW FOR THE TIME THEY USED.
I think if it is gardening, hunting like fishing etc or being creative as in making things that this will make people happier. I think being busy and creative is the best medicine as it gets people from being focused on themselves and their problems and focused onto something different.
To be a man is to be masculine and to be enjoying who you are and what you can do and not to be led about like a dog on a leash by anyone or anything. So what do you think a man should be Rossa?
@ Michael. Unfortunately I am so un- pc in my thinking that I couldn’t possibly share my views on a public forum with my name attached. Primarily we are fathers, brothers and providers and for those of us gifted with natural ability or even inherited fortune we should expect more.
The key to life is to do onto others as you would like done onto you, that is a good start I suppose?
In the case of bullying talking about it can make it worse as bullies who get caught bullying try to control what was said about them by denying it and putting all the blame on their victim from being stupid, evil, an object of fun to being a bully themselves and accusing that person of doing the things the bullies did themselves in order to pass the blame. So you have to be careful who you tell as some bullies are sociopaths and they have friends…
They try to make light out of bullying and control the damage sometimes in order to keep on bullying. The motivation of bullies is control over their victim and their environment, if they can’t effect their victim then they try to control what others think of their victim because control over another person is control for them. If they can’t control their victim then they can control people around that victim, so they use others to satisfy their need for control but that is what sociopaths do. So many who are in such despair are victims of others or circumstances beyond them and that means they feel they have lost control and have become so focused in on their problems that in fact then they are their worst enemy then because they do not see the wider fuller picture as in those who love them, respect them or who like them. They forget or can’t see the options in front of them and they get into dark ways of thinking and feeling because they can’t step back and that is what bullies do to. Bullies are not happy unless they lower someone’s self esteem lower than their own as they live in slurry and try to grab people and drown them in the same slurry that they live in and their victims can’t see then that what others do and think says more about those saying or doing these things than it does about the victim as what people say and do is who and what they are and has nothing to do with facts or the truth but control and bitterness.
I think bullying in society is getting worse and it has to do with people who are angry, envious, wanting to be accepted by a group, who do not want to be bullied themselves so they join in on bullying. a way to proves ones own masculinity to others in order to feel that their manhood isn’t the size of a peanut and transferring anger in one part of their lives into another part by bullying.
I think the best way to defeat suicide is to let people know that they are loved and that their problems are bigger in their head than they are in reality as they can do and be whoever they want as problems are always temporary and it is better to live life and leave the bullies or problem when they live and that is normally in the cesspool that is who they are.
Good that people are reaching out but hoping they get the right support and information when they do.
Time that doctors and pharma companies stop lying to the public and misinformation people. The “chemical imbalance” theory is a myth. People get depressed for various reasons.
The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth by Harvard Professor Irving Kirsch ~
http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperors-New-Drugs-Antidepressant/dp/0465022006
Psychiatrist Dr Joanna Moncrieff – The Myth of the Chemical Cure: The Politics of Psychiatric Drug Treatment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV1S5zw096U
{ Do not stop or change prescribed psychoactive drugs without talking to a good doctor, due to the dangers of withdrawal }
Something that helps is ASIST training (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) ~
http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/Mental_Health_Services/NOSP/Training/
http://www.yourmentalhealth.ie/Get-involved/News-events/Events/ ( Under select Period put the next 6 months )
We deserve informed consent about these mind altering drugs. According to medical journalist Robert Whitaker, in his book “Anatomy of an Epidemic”, anti-depressants can turn mild/moderate depression into a chronic, long term condition.
My experience on these drugs, which I unwittingly took for anxiety ~
have your say