Rural TDs criticise legislation on indoor dining as discriminatory

The Government has been warned that there will be legal challenges to its legislation on indoor hospitality if it is passed by the Dáil and Seanad.

The legislation aims to open more of the hospitality sector by restricting indoor dining to those who have been fully vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19 or are under-18 but dining with their parents. It will be debated for five hours on Wednesday and is expected to pass.

Independent TD Carol Nolan said the legislation to restrict indoor dining to these groups is "irredeemably discriminatory in the most negative sense" and she agreed that it was "apartheid".

Ms Nolan also said “it is also coercive and controlling” and “not just bad law but a contorted and twisted version of what good law should be”.

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She was speaking as she introduced a motion on behalf of Rural Independent TDs which she insisted was not a call “to abandon all restrictions”.

But she said it calls on the Government to “allow hospitality businesses across the State to carry on their trade and to allow attendance at sporting and religious events, subject only to those non-discriminatory limitations as are necessary and proportionate in the interests of public safety”.

Independent Danny Healy-Rae warned that he could not implement a policy that would separate families and keep some “outside the door” as he highlighted the case of a woman whose doctor recommended against a Covid-19 vaccine because of her health situation.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath said it was “unethical and discriminatory” against unvaccinated people.

Minister of State for Health Anne Rabbitte said of the legislation "it's not perfect, but it gives us the opportunity to get the doors open within the Nphet recommendations.

“It’s something that we can build on, and that is the conversations I am hearing from the vintners, from Adrian Cummins of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.”

She insisted that “from the outset, the government put in place a robust response strategy that has successfully mitigated the impact of Covid-19”.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said the Government’s plan is “divisive, discriminatory and unfair”. Mr Cullinane said his party takes a very responsible approach to public health that would have society opening “as safely as we possibly can”.

But he said the Nphet modelling that had not factored in changes to the vaccination programme.

Labour TD Ivana Bacik said she was “really concerned and dismayed by extreme language used around this critical issue” and terms such as “apartheid and Naziism” are “utterly in appropriate”. It was about “balancing risk”.

She said there was a real difference in culture between the Dáil and Seanad and partly because of gender, and in the Dáil “things are much more confrontational”.

But Independent TD Catherine Connolly who agreed with her on the language said they had an opportunity through a private member’s motion to discuss the issue and there would be a “Bill that would be pushed through the Dáil and guillotined” and it was difficult to have collaboration in that environment.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said the Rural Independents had been consistent in their view that all of society should be open and “let Covid rip”.

He said what they wanted was implemented in December when indoor hospitality and dining re-opened and in January more than 1,000 people died as a result of that decision.

“There is not accountability for that decision.”

Independent TD Sean Canney said a “draconian” law is being introduced and it was unfair to expect small family businesses to police this issue.

He pointed to the decision last year “where we split the pubs between wet pubs and dry pubs and created a division within an industry that was not necessary”.

He believed they needed common sense and not legislation and “we’ve over analysed the problem and come up with something that is unworkable”.

Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín said the Government was a “radical outlier” going in a direction that no other EU country is going in.

He believed it was happening because “we have a really insular, inward” view of the virus. He hit out at Sinn Féin, his former party, who he claimed have “stuck their finger in their ear and provided no opposition” to the Government.

Independent TD Michael Collins said the rural comedy Killinaskully “wouldn’t come up with an Act like that”.

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae asked where the data protection was in the legislation.

He said it was “totally absolutely ridiculous” if a person could ask a customer “haven’t been vaccinated? Show me your vaccination pass.”