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A GROUP REPRESENTING grocery shops and convenience stores in Ireland has said that retail workers are having to deal with “an increasingly antagonistic” group of people who refuse to wear masks or social distance in shops.
In a letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly this week, RGDATA said that it is receiving daily reports from its members of staff having to deal with “aggressive behaviour when they politely ask for safety protocols to be followed”.
The group, which represents 4,000 grocery shops, convenience stores and supermarkets, has asked that frontline retail staff are given an increased priority when it comes to receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.
“Under the current plan it seems as if essential retail and food logistics workers will not be considered for a vaccine until Stage 13 (out of 15 stages),” RGDATA director general Tara Buckley said.
“If this remains the position, the levels of absence from shops currently being experienced are likely to be exacerbated with clear and present threats to the maintenance of food supplies nationally.”
Currently, with two Covid-19 vaccines approved in Ireland, the priority groups receiving a vaccine are people aged 65 and over in long-term residential care and frontline healthcare workers.
Next in line for the vaccine after these groups are people aged 70 and older.
Sixth on the list are key workers, including those delivering the vaccination programme, while tenth on the list are key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure.
“Other workers in occupations important to the functioning of society” are 13th on the list, but prior to that many groups of people such as people working in the education sector and people aged 18-64 with certain medical conditions are due to receive a vaccine.
In her letter to Donnelly, RGDATA’s Buckley said that the highest numbers of people eligible for Covid-19 illness payment this week are in the retail/wholesale sector.
She said: “As you are aware this payment is made to a person who is self- isolating or where the person has been diagnosed with the infection.
“RGDATA members [...] are reporting significant challenges to managing staff rostering, and keeping staff in separate pods so as to minimise the impact on the shop of a member of staff getting the virus or being a close contact of a person with the virus.
“Given the levels of the virus in the community it is no surprise that essential retail staff and food logistics workers are being impacted and that the figures of those out of work and on the Covid 19 illness payment are rising.”
Highlighting the aggressive nature of a small number of customers, Buckley said it was important that food shops remain open and staffed to service local communities.
“I understand that there are plenty of groups and sectors that will seek to argue their priority to secure vaccination against Covid-19,” she said.
“In light of the figures released today on the Covid 19 Illness payment, and the continued operation of retail grocery shops through the Level 5 lockdown, I hope that an evidence-based analysis will result in a change in the order of vaccination priority for essential retail and food logistics workers.”
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a Department of Health spokesperson said that the allocation group has focused in on those most at risk of getting seriously ill from Covid-19.
However, the allocation strategy remains subject to change.
The spokesperson said: “The priority is to first vaccinate and protect directly the most vulnerable amongst us, that is, those most likely to have a poor outcome if they contract the virus. The priority is to directly use vaccines to save lives and reduce serious illness, hence the focus on the over 65 year old cohort in long term residential care facilities, and healthcare workers in frontline services often caring for the most vulnerable.
“All of the groups will be covered as further vaccine supplies become available and the immunisation programme is rolled out nationally.
“The evidence will be kept under review and the allocation groups may be updated, where necessary, in light of new evidence.”
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What a country is right. A national disgrace this fella. Cycled around Marbella for a few years and then owed nothing. Start over with stashed money while we pay off their debt for the next 2 generations
@Peter Broderick: in fairness to him he did exit Nama by paying off 300 million in debt to them.
@Robert Woodward: You mean they sold his assets at a loss
@Peter Broderick: sadly we need brickies like Ronan as Fine Gael are ideologically opposed to home ownership and construction.
@Peter Broderick: Don’t hate the player!
Little available land, The country is empty, the island has the population of a mid sized European capital.
Tokyo population 38 million, average rent 2 bed apartment 600 to 800 euro. Banana Republic
@Ann Kearney: Government doesn’t set rent. Rent is a function of value and construction costs.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: Banana Republic
Function?
Johnny and the boys back in full flow , some country!
It never ends.
Sure who wouldn’t wanna be a developer in Ireland, you could have helped send the country off an economic cliff in 2008, helped condemn generations to debt to pay your mistakes off, lie low and let NAMA sort ya out, buy the property portfolio back after a couple of years and get going again to trap another few generations in debt to have somewhere to live, knowing if it all goes down the toilet again, 2008 reboot can be had and u will be fine….yet people were this week giving out about someone earning PUP. It’s no wonder companies that use the country as a tax haven see us as nothing but mugs, cos that’s all we are and more
Great wee country
What a republic!
Hopefully anyone getting a social home in this key site will be working locally.
The policy of giving homes close to jobs to people who have never worked, and then forcing the people in the jobs to commute for hours, is nuts.
After 19 years it’s good to hear something happening with the site now
Sure they’ll all be in the sea soon!
Looks fairly bad, same old plastic boxes. You wont need to buy a tv because you can just listen to your neighbours.
Is he still flying young birds around Europe in his helicopter looking more like a creep than he did before
Is it 25 or 20% of the 3800 (950 or 760)?
If its 25% then should NAMA not retain 25% stake in the site? (If its 20%, 760 is not “nearly 1,000″)
If NAMA own the site, i.e. the state, why not make it 3800 social and affordable homes, or to compromise 3000 and 800 so the developer can make some profit.
Will the social and affordable homes be priced at the cap and should the developer not have to commit to an estimated cost for 1 bed, 2 bed etc units in the planning stage?
The Irish Glass Bottle Site was sold to the Dublin Docklands Development Authority in 2006 for E430 million with help from an Anglo loan of E288 million. Sean Fitz was a board member on the DDDA and another DDDA board member was also a board member in Anglo.The DDDA was a state body, now dissolved, it had such luminaries in its ranks like John Tierney and Phil Hogan. Trying to make sense of the history of all these players gave me a headache so I gave up, if I have a point to make it’s that the state has already lost millions on this site, is it now going to lose more millions with this deal?
@Eddie O’Neill: Eddie, good o’l Bernie Mc NAMA was the other big player God bless him he caught me for a fortune, but that was life
@Eddie O’Neill: Eddie, good o’l Bernie Mc NAMA was the other big player God bless him he caught me for a fortune, but that was life
@Eddie O’Neill: Eddie, good o’l Bernie Mc NAMA was the other big player God bless him he caught me for a fortune, but that was life
@Eddie O’Neill: Eddie, good o’l Bernie Mc NAMA was the other big player God bless him he caught me for a fortune, but that was life
Keep an eye out for those that object to this for when the next GE comes around, they deserve to never be voted in to power
Why are all these new apartment and hotel builds so hard on the eye? Is it a cheapness thing? Cutting corners. Or is there one architect doin all these and he just uses the one template? The city is guna look awful.
The people who know how to build houses are property developers. You don’t have to like them
Don’t forget we’re all in this together, isn’t that right Johnny.
Good news. Although the smell of effluent from the waste treatment plant on Poolbeg needs to be addressed.
Will they take into account projected sea level rises and post glacial rebound in their design or leave that up to the council.
New Venice of Dublin is more appropriate name for it
Quarter. Quarters everywhere
This area could really be great. It won’t be if this Mickey the Builder gets his hands on it. Resist.
Another bloody ‘quarter’. I hate that word.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: it’s from 80s throwback developers like this lad who desperately wanna make Dublin into New York. When they should be maintaining the unique historic nature of the city.
Lidl and Aldi are great for creating fake Irish place names in their branding that’s for sure!
Don’t forget to install a few kiosks for the MUGGERS & DRUGGIES don’t want them getting wet while waiting for you
Lol! It’s like The Wire, but then we vote to keep it that way and have done so for over 50 years so while we want to hate it the fact is this chancer will build more in the next decade than the government will even come close to. Best thing to do is throw a few quid at Oaktree. Little acorns…
Paddy Ireland, continuies refusal to allow tall buildings, Dublin needs at least one 200 meter skyscraper, from the air it looks runted, backward planners, have a clue what a modern city should look like. Dublin should have an iconic building like the “Gherkin” building in London, Banana Republic to
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