Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an rún seo. Ní raibh aon ghá leis an rún seo in aon chor ach rinne an Rialtas botún seafóideach agus, dá bharr sin, tá orainn an rún seo a chur os comhair an Rialtais inniu. De bharr an bhotúin a rinne an Rialtas, tá postanna i mbaol agus tá sé ag cur éileamh seafóideach ar thithe tábhairne agus ar bhialanna ar fud an Stáit. The motion, while important, should not have been necessary. It seeks to rescind the statutory instrument introduced last week in the name of the Minister for Health. Like so many other self-inflicted wounds and communication disasters by this Government, all the statutory instrument has done is to take away time and energy from our ability to focus on actual problems that need urgent attention. There are grave and growing problems we should be talking about today, for example, rent increases, the lack of affordable accommodation, the paralysis in health and the forestry sector, flooding within the regions, including along the Shannon, and the difficulties in the agricultural sector with the onset of Brexit, but instead we are trying to talk sense into a Government that speaks nonsense on this issue.

The statutory instrument was an answer to a question nobody asked. It was another totally unnecessary measure. As Pat Leahy of The Irish Timesput it, the criminal enforcement Bill which was debated here last week was nothing more than performative politics. The exact same could be said of the instrument we are seeking to have annulled today. The instrument looks and sounds like a meaningful gesture but in reality is nothing short of absurd. The reaction from the sectors and industries most impacted has been scathing. Hotels in my constituency remain at a loss to understand the rationale behind the capacity and guest limits that have now been established. There is no clear sense that the Government understands the day-to-day operational realities that many hotels face.

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These hotels are major local employers but the Government has not listened to them or asked for their experience. Has the Minister said at any time that perhaps those who have spent a lifetime working in the sector know something? The answer is "No", of course. Instead, the Government has doubled down. Like the description of the Bourbon dynasty, the Government parties learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They actively persist in clearly wrong-headed policies because they do not have the humility, or perhaps the capacity, to admit a mistake that may yet end up causing job losses and closures in Laois-Offaly and constituencies beyond. Many are now considering if there is a vendetta against pubs, hotels and restaurants. At one time we would have put such remarks down to an excess of imagination but now it is not so easy to dismiss these concerns. The official Government line is that it wants to see hotels, restaurants and pubs fully operational and open but this week we have seen even more so-called guidance down to the kind of decorative umbrellas pubs should not use on cocktail drinks. This kind of nonsense highlights the patronising stance the Government has, perhaps unwittingly, adopted towards the sector.

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