Philip Ryan and Ralph Riegel
July 23 2021 02:11 PM
Every person who wants to eat or drink indoors will be required to give their name and phone number under new contact tracing rules.
At a meeting of the Working Group on Indoor Hospitality, the industry was told they will be required to ask every customer who sits inside for their name and phone number.
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Under the existing regulations only one member of a group is asked for their contact details.
The new rules for indoor dining will also see customers asked to show proof of immunity from coronavirus along with photo identification.
Businesses are being asked to anonymously record if customers have provided details of being vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months.
This will mean contact tracing details of customers will be recorded on one sheet of paper while a separate document will note that everyone at an individual table provided proof of immunity.
Restaurants, pubs and cafes have also been asked to police every entrance to their premises to ensure customers cannot walk in without first being checked for proof of immunity
This new rule is understood to have raised eyebrows among industry representative who only learned of the guideline on entrances today.
“It is going to be very hard for businesses to implement a policy like that,” a source at the meeting said.
Officials said the guidelines will advise that keeping tables two metres apart is best practice but one metre will be permitted.
There will be no separate table distances for people dining with unvaccinated children.
Six adults will be permitted per table but it is still unclear how many children will be allowed accompany them. However, unvaccinated children under 18 years old will be permitted to accompany adults when they are dining inside.
Failte Ireland is expected to publish the draft guidelines later on today ahead of indoor dining resuming on Monday.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was very confident the public will fully comply with new indoor dining rules as he confirmed Ireland will have the fast running vaccination programme worldwide within the next 14 days.
Mr Martin, speaking in Cork, said the Government and health agencies had to trust the public in terms of the new regulations regarding indoor dining.
Those who dine indoors from Monday must either have proof of vaccination or recovery from Covid-19, have photo identification with them and every member of their group must give their names and phone numbers for contact tracing purposes.
"We (as individuals) have obligations to comply. I remember very similar conversations last year when we brought in a law that you had to wear a mask going into a retail store. All the interviews that morning were saying that this would not be enforced," he said.
"The same thing happened with public transport - people complied.
“We have to trust people as well."
Mr Martin said the Government was trying to balance the need to re-open the economy to people while also ensuring the maximum possible level of protection against Covid-19 is maintained.
"The Chief Medical Officer is of the view that the staff are better protected by just serving only vaccinated people in an indoor setting," he said.
"But that said, the vaccination programme is running very fast. We now, in the (next) two weeks, will have the fastest running vaccination programme in the world. Our uptake is very high as a people. We are ahead of schedule."
Last month, only Denmark had a higher vaccination rate than Ireland.
"There are opportunities now for 18-25 year olds who can register with the portal. We will be shortly moving to 16 to 18 year olds and NIAC will be giving advice then in respect of children and that will be in the next week or so.”
He said he wanted to male the point that the Government “really don’t want to be doing this.”
"We are in an unusual context. It is a pandemic. These are decisions one ordinarily would never have to contemplate."
He said it was about balancing the reopening of society with quality of life with public health.
"Those are the essential calls we have to make,” he said.
"NPHET has assured me that as an added protection outdoor hospitality will be more generally available. Indoor dining will be for the vaccinated."
The Taoiseach said he was also very confident about a successful autumn booster vaccination programme.
"Yes - we have already entered into a pre-purchase agreement.
"I pay tribute to all the people involved in the vaccination programme and to the Irish people themselves. We have one of the highest uptake rates and that is very positive.
"Already the HSE is planning the booster and on how we will administer that booster programme because we are now well beyond the half year stage.
"There are various studies around the efficacy and length of efficacy of the vaccine and so that will inform the assessments that will be made by the Task Force on Vaccination (TFV)."
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