Councillors shoot downplans for ‘vaccine sheriffs’

Members connected to hospitality sector urge Council to write to Tanaiste to say plans to separate vaccinated and unvaccinated people in pubs are ‘totally unworkable’

Government proposals to separate vaccinated from unvaccinated people in pubs and restaurants would involve owners having to put “vaccine sheriffs” on duty at doors to check their jab status, a Fianna Fail councillor told a meeting of Meath County Council this week.

Cllr Tom Behan, along with other colleagues who are in the hospitality business Cllrs Padraig Fitzsimons, Wayne Harding and Mike Bray, said that the plan is totally unworkable and was no solution for a sector put under so much pressure since the start of the Coid-19 outbreak. They requested they called on the council write to the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD and the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly TD, to stress upon them the importance of there being no separation between vaccinated and unvaccinated people and emphasising the sheer impracticability of managing this with the return to indoor dining.

Cllr Behan said the hospitality sector began to trade again last June with the resumption of outdoor dining, and scheduled then to move forward to the 5th of July where indoor dining could resume.

Following on from public health advice that date was postponed and current information would suggest that any return to indoor dining would only be advised for people who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19.

Cllr Behan suggested that this was totally impractical and unmanageable to expect those within the hospitality sector to police. A separation of indoor and outdoor dining would create significant problems for the hospitality sector, and would require additional staff to be hired in a sector that has been already decimated of staff over the past 18 months.

To implement these measures it would also require a ‘Vaccine Sheriff’ that would have to determine whether or not your customers were vaccinated or not or indeed have recovered from Covid-19. He said if a family arrived at the premises door with a father and daughter included, the vaccinated father would be allowed inside but would his unvaccinated daughter have to be left outside?

“I can also envisage a problematic scenario where a family call for dinner or drinks, do we then separate them as the parents may be vaccinated and the children not. We also have to be cognisant of the fact that our staff within the sector who might want to get a bite to eat or a drink after work may have to dine outdoors as they may not be vaccinated, yet it is perfectly acceptable for them to work indoors all day”.

Cllr Fitzsimons said that this would cause problems within the local community and that to implement such a measure we would be “pitting the young vs the old, which would only lead to resentment within the trade and could in turn lead to loss of custom, as we would literally be leaving the young out in the cold.”

He also noted that the vaccine card as it stands was totally unworkable, easily forged and not within the remit of publicans to obtain such information.

Cllr Wayne Harding said: "We are fully aware that upon reopening for indoor dining there will still be significant public health measures in place that would see capacity of premises reduced, time limits in place for tables not sufficiently distanced and maximum of six persons to a table. That coupled with full implementation of social distancing, PPE and Covid compliance we should be able to fully resume indoor dining with no separation of vaccinated or unvaccinated people. As we have always done, we will operate within the public health advise, and the health and safety of our customers and staff in paramount."

Independent Cllr Gillian Toole said that a vaccination certificate was a person’s private medical information and would be subject to GDPR provisions.