Publicans must be given the opportunity to prove themselves- McGrath

Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath has called on the Government to proceed with the re-opening of pubs despite NPHET’s recommendations to keep the pubs closed for a further period of time.

Deputy McGrath has said that publicans who have spent large amounts of money on installing safety measures in their pubs can not be penalised again for the clusters that have developed within other industries and must be given an opportunity to prove themselves as being able to earn their living and save their livelihoods in a safe manner for their customers.

 

“Our publicans must be given a chance to prove themselves that they can operate in a safe manner. It has now got to a point that it is absolutely discriminatory that this industry can continue to be shut down on the basis of clusters developing elsewhere.” Said Deputy McGrath

 

“We are talking about generational family businesses in many cases, they are invested in their communities, they care for the health of their customers and their communities but they are being prohibited from returning to their livelihoods while the rest of the country moves on and learns to live side by side with this virus.

 

We cannot say that we must learn to live with this virus but continue to keep this industry shut down. They have invested in safety measures, they can operate in a safe manner and if they cannot then they can be individually closed for failures but keeping an entire industry shut down for another undefined period of time without giving them an opportunity to prove themselves is absolutely discriminatory.” Continued McGrath

 

On foot of the advice from NPHET to keep pubs closed, Deputy McGrath has once again called on the Government to think outside the box and learn to differentiate between pubs and nightclubs and city and rural pubs.

“To continue to treat large nightclubs in Dublin in the same manner as our country pubs is beyond farcical at this point and I am pleading with government to think outside the box and find a way to allow publicans to prove themselves.

 

Many publicans that I represent are now in a state of despair and fear losing their businesses forever and their loss will have a detrimental impact on the social fabric of communities across rural Ireland. They must be given a chance to prove that they too can learn to live along with this virus and respect the health of their customers and communities. It’s time to give them that chance and respect the role that they play particularly in our rural communities.” Concluded McGrath

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