TURNED AWAY BECAUSE CHILDREN HAD NO MASKS
A FATHER-OF-TWO told yesterday how he was turned away from a shop because his two children didn’t have face masks on.
Confusion reigns over the wearing of face masks in indoor settings as no law has yet been enacted to explain the rule.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced this week that face masks and coverings should be worn by all customers in retail environments.
And Ireland’s acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn was very clear yesterday that there is ‘no recommendation that children under 13 years of age should wear a face covering’.
However, Andrew Dunne has told the Mail that he and dozens of other parents were turned away from a major sports store in Dublin yesterday because their young children were not wearing masks.
He said that he and his two daughters, aged ten and eight, travelled to the Decathlon store in Ballymun yesterday.
Mr Dunne had a mask for himself but didn’t bring some for his children because it has never been a requirement for young children to wear masks.
When they arrived at the store, a security guard, who was wearing a mask, ‘stopped me at the entrance and said the kids needed to wear face masks’, citing a change in the law, he said.
‘I said, “No, I don’t think they do”. I said that the law hasn’t changed, there is no requirement for children to wear face masks,’ said Mr Dunne adding that he tried to explain that at no stage were children ever ‘banned or barred’ from anywhere if they are not wearing a mask.
After a few minutes disputing this, Mr Dunne said that he was getting ‘slightly annoyed’ and stepped away from the situation after which he saw a number of families, with young kids, approach the store all to be turned away like he was.
He added there is ‘definitely confusion out there’ over this face mask policy because after this incident he and his children went to Liffey Valley Shopping Centre where, he said, very few people were wearing masks.
A spokeswoman for Decathlon said the Government has not enforced the wearing of face masks as a definite rule but ‘in our store, we want to do our best to maximise the safety of all those that visit our store and the safety of our staff’.
‘Our policy for children wearing masks is, we simply are encouraging face-covering in under-13s where it is possible.’