The head of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland stated that having more pubs open would help broaden the spread of customers.
While we all await for the Government’s announcement on Friday regarding the removal of some of the Level 5 restrictions next week, it has been stated several times that while we should expect some pubs to open next week, it will only be pubs that serve substantial meals, while the so-called “wet pubs” will likely not be allowed to open.
Speaking to Newstalk today, Padraig Cribben, the CEO of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), stated that having all of the pubs open would help to spread customers around, and prove to be safer for everyone:
“We believe it would be safer from a public health point of view to actually open all of the pubs. We believe all the pubs should be given the opportunity to trade.
“I say that because there are a couple of things we do know. We know there is a pent-up demand there and that people will socialise at Christmas and we believe the broader that is spread the safer it will be.”
He also stated that the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) haven’t shared any information proving any previous clusters of infections originated in bars and restaurants prior to the second lockdown:
“If we don’t have it, then NPHET don’t have it, so what NPHET is doing is guessing. What we were told from the very beginning was, this would be based on science, not on opinion and if we don’t have the data, they don’t have it so my opinion is equally as valid as theirs.
“What Government are actually saying is, we trust the people who run restaurants, we trust the people who run hotels, we trust the people who do food in pubs, we trust the people who go in there.
“But we don’t trust the people who go into non-food pubs, we don’t trust the staff in there and we don’t trust those people – and that is not acceptable.”
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