Hotel, restaurant and bar owners are to be a sharp warning about complying with Covid-19 guidelines must improve in response to the latest surge in case numbers.
The Government will today meet with hospitality representative groups following a massive spike in Covid numbers.
Daily case numbers for the past seven days have exceeded 3,000 each day.
The Government will seek “maximum compliance” with existing guidelines from pubs, restaurants and live entertainment venues, particularly the checking of Covid certificates, according to The Irish Times.
Recent research by the Economic and Social Research Institute revealed the number of customers not being asked to present a Covid cert has increased steadily in recent weeks, jumping from 21 to 37 per cent in pubs, while 34 per cent said they were not asked for the certificate at a restaurant in October.
Covid restrictions eased on October 22nd, allowing for the reopening of nightclubs and live music events with a number of additional measures in place.
Since then, 2,266 compliance checks have been carried out by the HSE, “at all times of the day/night and at weekends”. These checks found 70% of businesses to be “compliant”, 23 per cent “required additional compliance measures” and 7 per cent were “non-compliant”.
Failure to comply with the guidelines can result in a €2,500 fine for the business, in addition to a referral being made to Gardaí, which could result in an objection to the renewal of the premises’ licence.
