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TÁNAISTE LEO VARADKAR has said there is no guarantee that pubs will reopen on 10 August.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, the Tánaiste said he could not say if pubs will reopen on that date, but said they certainly will not be opening before that date.
“We’re not saying they will open on the 10th of August – we are saying they will open no sooner than the 10th of August.”
The reopening of pubs next month will depend on the figures relating to the virus.
His comments come as a number of TDs told Varadkar the government had made the wrong decision by pausing Phase Four yesterday.
Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae hit out at the delay in pubs re-opening, stating that it will majorly impact on rural areas. He said the entire country should not be punished for the actions of a few.
“There’s a big difference between Portmagee and Dame Lane,” he said.
He also took issue with pubs serving food being allowed to open but those that do not remaining closed.
“What is the difference between a person with a pint of Guinness and a toasted cheese sandwich in this hand… and person inside another pub with a pint of Guinness and no toasted cheese sandwich?” asked Healy Rae.
“You are a doctor, why does that pose a public health danger,” he said, adding that “it is a crazy decision by the government”.
Varadkar agreed that the vast majority of publicans are responsible.
However, he said the government was always clear that the roadmap was not set in stone and could be accelerated or halted, depending on the public health advice.
The Tánaiste said he did “feel for people” who had painted the pub, ordered in stock in the expectation that they would be opening on Monday.
He said guidelines were being formulated for pubs on how they will be able to reopen, but said it might include rules about limiting numbers to “very small numbers”.
Varadkar said it is a “hammer blow” to publicans. He wasn’t the only one looking forward to “freedom pints” next week, he told the Dáil.
Healy Rae said pubs were ready to open their doors and the government pulled the rug from under them.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) said they are looking internationally as to what happened when pubs reopened, and it resulted in a spike, said Healy Rae. However, he said rural pubs are “unique” to pubs in other parts of the world.
They cater for “smaller numbers of people” he said, stating that “local people come in from countryside for a drink”.
“You have really missed the bigger picture here,” he said, stating the reopening of pubs on Monday would not have seen a recurrence of the virus.
Varadkar said the virus is “still very low” with “roughly 20 cases per day”, but he said the trajectory was a matter of concern and was going in the wrong direction.
He said this was “90% due to our own behaviours”.
“People in close contact with one another in confined indoor spaces breathing on each other, coughing on each other, touching each other, and as a result of that, we have seen a number of clusters often linked to house parties,” said the Tánaiste.
When alcohol is consumed “in house parties or on the streets…it is very hard to maintain social distancing”, said Varadkar.
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Where are the quotas for bin men, block layers or plumbers??? It’s an honest question, for the sake of equality we need to get them numbers even. It’s not like the CAO is an unbiased system that doesn’t take gender into account and allows people to chose the future of their own free will. Also I clearly remember when voting that on the ballot it said I could only vote for men and I didn’t have a free choice to choose who I wanted to vote for regardless of gender.
Men make up the other 50% yet less than 1% of men are on boards or are elected. Yet they have the majority in prison, the majority unemployed, the majority that commit suicide, the majority working in outdoor Laborious jobs, the majority working 5 days a week or more.
I’m all for gender equality but not by quotas and certainly not for TDs where all those that run and are elected can be either gender
Gender quotas are by their nature are discriminatory, which is ironic when the wokesters are trying to abolish discrimination
@Alan Biddulph: They call it ‘positive descrimination’ believe it or not…
There’s at least a 50% quota of women on TV commentating on mens sport.
@JG: and the vast majority not very good at it
@Peter Walsh: in fairness neither are most of the men
Still perputating the gender pay myth. It has been well and truly debunked but still quoted as fact by the bad opinion project on the journal. A calculation so basic and without any nuance.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlynborysenko/2020/03/31/great-news-ladies-the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-myth/?sh=2d5c5bf83b34
https://time.com/3222543/wage-pay-gap-myth-feminism/
As I read somewhere recently there is a gender earnings gap. But that is merely due ro personal decisions like tour line of work or having children and deciding not to be in work for long periods of time, not the big bad ‘Patriachtly’. Ask your husband / partner to stay at home. You can’t honestly expect to be missing from work for several years and be paid the same as someone who has been present the whole time?
Would you prefer the best brain surgeon to operate on you or one chosen by a quota system?
I hope some day car insurance costs will be the same for both genders…
@Seamus Quaide: they already are. EU gender directive means you charge the same
Men make up the other 50% yet less than 1% of men are on boards or are elected. Yet they have the majority in prison, the majority unemployed, the majority that commit suicide, the majority working in outdoor Laborious jobs, the majority working 5 days a week or more.
I’m all for gender equality but not by quotas and certainly not for TD’s where all those that run and are elected can be either gender
My father had emergency surgery at 3am by a team coming off another emergency opp. How many hours did they work’ do or can women accomadate those hours.
So how about more men as
Secretaries and administrative assistants
Nursing, psychiatric and home health aides
Cashiers
Receptionists and information clerks
Dental hygienists
Childcare workers
Hair/makeup
Speech language pathologists
Dietitians and nutritionists
Why stop at gender/sexual orientation
What about the LGBTQ comunity. The non white comunity and then religous orientation.
Id rater the best person doing the job got the job.
With all these articles on gender equality in the Journal I wonder what is the gender breakdown if it’s editorial team and “journalists”?
Can someone please explain to those lefties, how democracy works? I’m absolutely for a quota for candidates in elections, but quotas on the outcome to get a parliament with 50% of the seats taken by women, would be the end of democracy. Why doing elections at all, when the results will be forged then? And what would next? A quota on transpersons in the parliament? Skin colour? Religious beliefs? Sexual orientation?
There’s at lest a 50% q
Affordable universal state childcare should be a no brainer and should be in place already, it would allow women equal access to work, should they chose that path, the reason many women work in low paid partime positions, is to split their time between working and caring for their children, school runs etc.
Because the prohibitive cost of child care makes working fulltime impossible, negating the money earned. It would also open access to further education and increasing skill sets for all parents.
The gender quota route would be an unnecessary once the childcare issue was addressed, because women would then also be able to choose to apply themselves to their work, in exactly the same way many of them currently view men in the workplace, as unhindered by commitments at home…
Just to be clear that last paragraph isnt intended as a trite dismissal, I am merely pointing out that if it comes to that point, of affordable state childcare genuinely giving women equal opportunities, then they can also complain about discrimination, if they then choose not to fully commit to work and career once the current barriers have been removed.
Because there is like it or not a section of women that want to have gender quota legislation put in place to give them a free pass, that allows them to work partime, while getting paid full-time, rise to positions of authority based on nothing but their gender.
This would also be an affront to any woman currently in a fulltime management position, or any position of authority, that who worked hard to get there on her own merits.
@David Van-Standen: are you saying that the gender quota legislation seeks to have women in part time jobs paid at full time rates?
@Sara McS: I am saying exactly what I said, that a section of women see it giving them a free pass and have a expectation that they should get preferential treatment, including getting paid more for doing less, based on the “because I’m worth it” mentality.
Groups that claim a gender pay gap exists across all work, fail to make direct like for like comparisons to come to conclusions, they adapt the data and ignore the fact that many woman currently work part-time, they take men working fulltime earning a figure and women working half those hours and earning half that figure and claim that this proves women are paid less than men!
Regardless of the motivation any gender quota legislation, ultimately elevates someone artificially and at the expense of someone else…
have your say