Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

All of us want to see the hospitality industry reopened. We want to go back to what we had prior to the pandemic when you could go for a drink or a meal. We all want that and to get back to a semblance of normality but we are not living in normal times; we are living in abnormal times. To say there is confusion and ambiguity on this legislation is a complete understatement. The polarisation that has happened because of this is pretty bad. There was a huge sense of solidarity at the start of this pandemic. People are weary of the pandemic and they want to get back to a semblance of normality but having a discriminatory and two-tier system for whether you can dine indoors or not because you are or are not vaccinated is ludicrous. It is open to all sorts of abuses in terms of medical data and so forth. It is discriminatory at its heart for those who have not been vaccinated or for those who work in the hospitality industry and who will be in that congregated setting. Young people who have not been vaccinated cannot enter a pub or restaurant if they walk out across the street from their place of work to another pub or restaurant because they have not been vaccinated. It is incredible that this has been allowed to manifest itself. Those are the facts.

The other fact is the spectre of this Delta variant. You only have to look at what is happening in Britain. Its average seven-day rate is 31,000 cases per day. It is reckoned that by mid-August Britain will have 100,000 cases per day. We all understand that the link between hospitalisations and death has been loosened, if not broken, because of the vaccine roll-out and that is very good. If we open up hospitality by 23 July, there is no doubt but that the rate of infections will increase. It is suggested that by the first week of September, we could have up to 2,500 cases per day. Hopefully that does not happen but if it happens and if things go wrong, this Government will have very serious questions to answer on the roll-out of this legislation and how it was done.

Considering all the things we have done in the last seven months, all the gains that have been made and all the social cohesion that has happened, it is ludicrous that we have a situation where we are reopening hospitality. My party and I are of the opinion that hospitality has to close until September and until the vast majority of people are vaccinated. This may be an unpopular opinion but we need that critical mass. Why was this legislation put together? It is a sop to the vested interests, including the Licensed Vintners Association. They want to open and I understand that tens of thousands of jobs are at stake. We all understand the dynamics.

I hope I am wrong but by the first week of September, we will have thousands of people affected and we possibly will have to recall the Dáil because the situation could be so serious. Hopefully that will not happen but that is down to this legislation, which is simply unworkable. When you really look at it - and I think even the Minister does not believe it can be done - this is not workable. The certificate is easily forged. You could print out thousands of them and give them out to people. How does a pub scan a quick response, QR, code? Will they scan it? No. It is not workable and I do not think even the Minister believes it will work. I would find it hard to believe that the Minister believes in this legislation.

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