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Michael Healy Rae
DEPUTY Michael Healy Rae and fellow Independent TDs have called for a meeting with the Government and the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to come up with a more imaginative approach to facilitate rural pubs being able to reopen.
Yesterday it was announced that pubs not serving food would remain closed until at least August 31 which came as a huge blow to publicans in Tralee and all over the country.
Deputy Michael Healy Rae has condemned the Government on what he has called “a lazy one sizes fit all strategy” when it came to Phase 4 of reopening Ireland.
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Because of this, the Independent Kerry TD and his colleagues in The Rural Independent Group has written to the Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to meet with them to discuss the continued delay and find “a little bit more imagination in trying to create a balance with reopening and giving many small family businesses a chance to open their doors, which have now been shut since the middle of March”.
“I can’t understand how the Government continues a policy where they feel that small rural pubs and big city nightclubs are judged as the one. Nearly all rural publicans know their customers well. I have no doubt that they can act in the most responsible way dealing with their small number of customers.”
“This move also has a knock on affect for their families, their workers, their cleaners, their musicians and even the many local sporting and voluntary groups who depend on the many events that are hosted by small pubs not to mention the support that these businesses give in sponsorship. A pub in rural Ireland is much more than a counter with a few seats,” said Deputy Healy Rae.
