2FM star faces backlash over ‘debate’ on anti-maskers
IRELAND cannot return to the crowded pubs of the past if bars reopen later this month, a top intensive care consultant has warned the nation.
‘It won’t be the crowded pubs we used to go to, they will open in a very controlled manner I would hope,’ Dr Catherine Motherway said yesterday.
She was speaking ahead of the launch today of the government’s medium-term coronavirus plan.
Pubs which do not serve food will be allowed reopen on September 21. However pubs in Dublin face further restrictions, under the government’s new road map, in order to control the high rates of infection in Dublin.
Dr Motherway said she would like to see a ‘controlled return to normal’ and that people would meet in ‘very controlled circumstances’.
Dr Motherway said the opening of restaurants and pubs that serve food hasn’t led to many Covid-19 cases and that she would hope the same would happen with the remaining pubs.
She told RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme that her biggest fear wasn’t pubs reopening, but in large scale, uncontrolled, indoor gatherings. She said these ‘amplifying events’ could spread the coronavirus.
She added she hopes pubs will follow guidance and she knows that their representatives have been speaking to the government.
Dr Motherway, who is a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at University Hospital Limerick and past president of the Intensive Care Society, said that the recent spike in cases in Limerick has not led to a rise in the numbers entering intensive care in the hospital.
‘We’re not seeing more admissions, thanks be to God,’ she said, adding that the virus was mostly spreading among the young and they do not require intensive care treatment. However, she said that scientists are discovering the disease can have significant long-term effects for young people.
Asked to respond to her comments, a spokesman for the Dublin-based representative group the Licensed Vintners Association said he accepted fully that the reopening has to be controlled.
‘This would be a socially distanced opening so it won’t be a crowded pub situation,’ he said.
He added that there will be ‘outrage’ among Dublin pub owners if the government reneges on its promise that so-called wet pubs can reopen on September 21.
‘Last week, they said pubs can reopen. How can they say this week that the pubs should stay closed?’ he said.
Pub owners are anxiously waiting for confirmation of the reopening after several delays. The LVA spokesman said that, as Dr Motherway had pointed out, the opening of pubs that serve food has not led to a jump in coronavirus cases.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, LVA chief executive Donall O’Keeffe urged the government not to go back on their word about the reopening. He said publicans were ‘concerned’ that the government might change their minds once again.
Mr O’Keeffe said: ‘That’s the fourth reopening date scheduled for wet pubs. By that date, they will have been closed 189 days.
‘We are calling on the cabinet to stick by their decision, reopen all of the pubs by September 21 and let us begin this long and difficult task of trying to rebuild our businesses. Our members deserve the opportunity to reopen after six months of closure. They will be reopening with very tight guidelines. It will completely change the pub experience.’
He added: ‘We’re very concerned [about reopening next Monday]. This is the fourth date.’
‘Very controlled circumstances’