Paul Murphy warns reopening indoor hospitality will spike COVID cases
Paul Murphy warned in a Dáil speech that reopening indoor hospitality would drive a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations and criticised rushed legislation that he said creates discrimination and risks for hospitality workers. He urged the government to delay reopening, provide income supports for small pubs, restaurants and workers, and withdraw threatened PUP cuts.
Rising case numbers
Paul Murphy highlighted 783 new cases reported that day and said the seven-day average has doubled over the past month. He pointed to a 500% surge in the Netherlands after hospitality reopened and warned that, with the Delta variant, case counts and subsequent hospitalisations climb rapidly - citing Dr. Nolan's estimate that cases could double every 15 to 29 days.
Hospitalisations and long COVID
He noted that hospitalisations are already rising, referencing a 54% increase in Britain cited at a press event, and warned that increased cases lead to more hospital admissions, deaths and long COVID, including lasting impacts on young people.
Risk to hospitality workers
Murphy argued the policy disproportionately endangers hospitality workers, who are largely young and unvaccinated and must continue to work indoors. He said public-health cautions about unvaccinated people avoiding indoor hospitality do not address the reality that workers have no choice but to turn up for work.
Criticism of government decisions and legislation
He criticised rushed legislation passed with no pre-legislative scrutiny that he said introduces discrimination and weakens health surveillance to facilitate reopening indoor hospitality. He said the Taoiseach confirmed NEFET did not sign off on the policy and described the idea of a "family bubble" in a pub with no masks while workers remain unvaccinated as inconsistent with public-health advice.
Alternatives and policy demands
Murphy recalled an earlier advocated alternative - mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from England, Scotland and Wales - and urged a different current course: delay reopening indoor hospitality for six to eight weeks until vaccination rates are higher, provide proper income supports for small pub and restaurant owners and workers, and withdraw threatened PUP cuts to protect lives and livelihoods.
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Thanks, Cairn Corleine. 783 new cases today. I think that's the highest daily case number since February. The seven-day average case number has now doubled in the course of the last month. We know that in the Netherlands, case numbers have gone up by 500% in the course of one week after reopening hospitality. Look at the graphs of what has been happening in Britain and then in a delayed fashion in the rest of Europe when you have the reopening of indoor hospitality. The case numbers in the context of Delta shoot through the roof and what comes inevitably after that, yes, at a lower and slower rate, thankfully due to vaccinations than previously, is hospitalisation. In Britain, hospitalisation is now up by 54% according to the CMO at the press event today. So don't believe it when people tell you that we can just open up and there will be no consequences in terms of lost lives. It's not true. As night follows day, hospitalisations will increase as a consequence and deaths and long COVID in particular for young people will be a lasting impact. At the NEFET press event today, Dr. Nolan said that if we continue at the current rates that we're at, he said if nothing else changes, our case counts will double every 15 to 29 days. So go from 700 to 1,400 to 2,800, you can see the kind of numbers we'll be in in a month or a month and a half's time. He said that nothing else changes and yet we're here in the Dáil today, the second last day of the Dáil term, with rushed legislation introducing discrimination without any pre-legative scrutiny whatsoever, major implications in terms of the health surveillance of people, creating a real division, an unnecessary division, extra division in society. Why? To facilitate the reopening of indoor hospitality. So things aren't going to stay as they are and cases double every 15 to 25 days. Instead, we're going to open the tap in terms of significant more increases. And who will pay the price for that? The hospitality workers. So again, Dr. Holohan at the press event today encouraged the unvaccinated people to be very careful in terms of hospitality and going indoor elsewhere. But tell that to the hospitality workers, who are by and large young, by and large unvaccinated. They have no choice. They have no choice but to turn up for work where they are at risk. Dangerous implications for society as a whole and also I would raise the point, because I think the government is operating on the basis that we only have a forward gear here. So we just keep going forward. But if, as Deputy Kenney has pointed out, we're in a crisis situation in a month and a half's time, possibility of the doll being recalled, I wonder will we manage to get out of this place in September like we're meant to be out of this place? At that point, the government may have no choice but to reverse course and to reimpose a lockdown. And that's the last thing that people want to see. People want to see a protection of the gains that have been made in terms of outdoor hospitality and so on. And yet that is what is endangered. I want to make the point, and it was actually already made by a government backbench TD in terms of the unvaccinated under 18s. There is no basis in public health advice for what the government is doing. I asked the Taoiseach about it yesterday and he confirmed that Neffet did not sign off on this, did not agree to this. But he said it's fine because they're in a family bubble. A family bubble in a pub with no masks when the hospitality workers haven't been vaccinated. That's a crazy, crazy idea. And it means that it will accelerate the spread of the virus. There was an alternative in terms of doing what we advocated seven weeks ago, mandatory hotel quarantine for England, Scotland and Wales to stop or to slow the spread of the Delta variant here. But there's also an alternative now. It's presented by some in this house that we're opposed to discrimination. Yes, we agree. And the way to oppose discrimination is just to reopen all of indoor hospitality for everybody. Well, no, there is an alternative. No introduction of discrimination. Hold off on the reopening of indoor hospitality. We're almost there in terms of vaccination. Six, seven, eight weeks until we have a very high level of vaccination in the population. So let's hold off on that. Let's provide proper income supports for the small pub, the restaurant owners and for the workers. Withdraw your threatened PUP cuts to protect the lives, protect the incomes of people. And in that way, you put people's needs before the private lobbying that's been going on. Thanks.
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