RURAL FOLK SUFFERING A ‘SCAM-DEMIC’ SAYS DEPUTY
RURAL Ireland is experiencing a ‘scam-demic’, with international travel for certain countries allowed while a pint in the local is still on the red list, a Cork TD has said.
Michael Collins, an Independent deputy who has two siblings who own bars, is outraged that the Government has allowed inward travel ‘without any great control’, while publicans who are trying their best to comply with the regulations are delayed from opening.
He told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I am getting it under the chin from fellas [constituents] who are telling me, “What a joke!” Publicans are trying hard to comply with the rules that are so strict and they go and throw open the doors to tourists without any great guidelines or any great checks.
‘People are angry and they are starting to use the word “scamdemic”. It is all about who you know in this pandemic.
‘The publican who has ten or 12 customers in a day is barred but you can open up the airports and bring ’em all in – céad míle fáilte like – with no strict controls of any sort or any type, and they have no issues with that.’
Mr Collins expressed shock that nightclubs were put in the same bracket as pubs in terms of opening the country – and he said there is a ‘total difference’. He added that publicans are being ‘scammed’.
Mr Collins said: ‘Last week, the publican went in with the nightclub owner. There’s a total difference in those two types of businesses. It is totally different having 200 or 300 people compared to a dozen in a public house. There is no joined-up thinking there.’
Mr Collins said the aviation pressure groups ensured the airports could open fully and he criticised the Government for leaving pubs behind.
‘The power of the pressure groups is stronger... and if you have the power, you get it across the line,’ the TD said.
‘The powers-that-be are the powers-that-be and they are calling the shots. They will have a lot of debris left after them – businesses and pubs closed.
‘We are going to see fallout from this. It is all down to who creates the bigger pressure.’
Independent Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae told the Mail it was a ‘pure joke’ that country folk have to travel ‘a 30-mile round trip’ for a few pints, as well as a meal they may not want.
He said: ‘I do understand what’s going on and the people of rural Ireland are being taken for fools. If they think that it is right to open up the country and for us to travel to 15 countries and them allowed to travel here while country people have to travel a 30-mile round trip and have a meal with their pints, it’s not actually fair at all. It is scandalous.’
The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland said it is astonished that pubs are forced to stay shut while ‘free travel’ to 15 foreign countries is permitted.
A spokesman said: ‘We now have a situation where people can travel freely to and from 15 countries without having to quarantine, while over 3,500 pubs remain shut in Ireland because the Government says it’s not safe to open them.
‘It has become obvious that travel and house parties are responsible for much of the spread of infection. Publicans, who were the first to close their businesses in mid-March, are astonished the Government appears happy to allow people travel from 15 countries but thinks nothing of permanently damaging the livelihoods of so many publicans.
‘The inaction around house parties is a terrible indictment of the skewed priorities.’
The spokesman added: ‘Pubs should be allowed open as they are controlled environments suitable for local communities to meet in small groups. They are far safer than unlimited travel and free-for-all house parties.’
‘There’s no joined-up thinking’