The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said that the Government has ceded control of the country to NPHET, following their decision to put pubs that serve food and restaurants into Level 4 while the rest of Dublin is placed into Level 3, which recently came into effect.
In a statement Donall O’Keeffe, chief executive of the LVA said: “It is quite clear now that the Government has little say in how this country is being run and we are now being ruled by NPHET. Welcome to NPHET-land.”
“They are closing down swathes of businesses in Dublin, pushing thousands of people out of work and yet NPHET admits they don’t have any data to show where the infections are arising in Ireland. Despite that lack of data the Government has empowered them to inflict whatever guidelines they want without challenge," he said.
'Null And Void'
In a statement, the LVA has also said they now view the Government’s new Resilience and Recovery 2020 – 2021 plan as null and void.
This decision comes on the same day that Professor Philip Nolan of NPHET admitted that body has no data to show where in Ireland the infections are originating from, the group noted.
O’Keeffe said: “Thanks to the actions taken by NPHET and Government we have a 6 month plan which is already null and void. No one can take that document seriously when they have Dublin at Level 3, pubs that serve food and restaurants at Level 4 and non food pubs at Level 5. They took weeks to put that document together but they undid it in a matter of three days."
“Let’s remember pubs that serve food and restaurants have been open for several months without a spike in infections, having reopened on 29 June. But still NPHET has imposed the most severe, draconian and punishing restrictions on the hospitality sector in all of Europe," he added.
“The pubs of Dublin widely accepted and backed the approach being taken by NPHET and Government at the beginning of this crisis. The approach being taken is shattering that support among the pubs of Dublin. It is quite clear that NPHET are not in this together with the pubs of Ireland and the Government are standing by and allowing them to sacrifice our sector,” O’Keeffe concluded.
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