Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae has said the people of rural Ireland should not have to suffer because crowds of people were drinking on the streets of Dublin over the weekend.
It comes after the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the full reopening of pubs could be delayed if pubs and customers fail to follow public health guidelines in the coming days.
Newstalk reporter Barry Whyte filmed large numbers of people drinking takeaway pints in the Dame Lane area of the capital without social distancing.
Gardai walking around the streets in Dublin City Centre to make sure pubs are not breaking the guidelines on social distancing, serving food or time limits etc
Yet this is allowed on Dame Lane..... pic.twitter.com/4inEgsY2Rm
— Barry Whyte (@BarryWhyte85) July 4, 2020
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Michael Healy-Rae said people in rural Ireland are “genuinely afraid” they will be made to pay for the breaches.
“I think that would be awful,” he said.
“If you were a small publican in a rural location who was desperately looking forward to turning on the light, maybe lighting a little fire in the corner and dusting down the cobwebs and opening the doors […] they were looking forward to that and now they are afraid.
“They are genuinely afraid that because of what happened in Dublin and because there was so many people out on the streets and they were nearly up on top of each other’s backs, that we are going to pay a high price for that – and we don’t want that to happen.”
He said there is a “good case to be made” for there to be different rules for pubs in rural and urban parts of the country.
“It is just the amount of people who would be going into those premises,” he said. “You obviously have such large amounts in the major centres of population.
“I know there were a number of contributing factors in that you have public houses and restaurants that are so near to each other and when people came out on to the street, they were literally spinning over on to each other.
The scene at Dame Court in Dublin as members of the public drink on the street outside a pub, 05-07-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews“I just don’t want that perception to go around the country so that publicans in places like county Kerry or West cork or above in Clare, that they have to pay the price for what happened in Dublin.
So, I would be pleading with the Taoiseach to act sensibly in reacting to what happened and not overreact to it.”
The scene at Dame Court in Dublin as members of the public drink on the street outside a pub, 05-07-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNewsHe said “common sense has to prevail” in the coming weeks.
“I don’t want a resurgence of this pandemic,” he said. “We don’t want more people to get sick and all we all have to do is play our part and play our role.
“We can’t be blaming the businesses; it is up to ourselves as individuals to act responsibly. It is up to each one of us. You can’t be relying on the State or the Department of Health or anyone else to be doing everything for us.
“It is up to ourselves to police ourselves and act responsibly.”
You can listen back to the full interview here:
