The Government’s plan to ease Covid-19 restrictions has been criticised by hospitality and construction industry groups, as well as by Opposition politicians. Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) chief executive Adrian Cummins said the Government announcement on the easing strategy on Tuesday had “no dates, no metrics, no plan, no hope for our industry”. He said that RAI members don’t understand why Taoiseach Micheál Martin mentioned hotels in his speech announcing the plan on Tuesday evening but not the rest of the hospitality industry. The Irish Hairdressers Federation welcomed the indication of a May reopening for hairdressers, but called for “greater clarity” on the dates involved. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that for the Government’s plan to be successful the “building blocks” of testing, contact tracing, the rollout of vaccines and quarantine have to be done right.

Source: The Irish Times March 30, 2021 21:33 UTC