After kneecapping the hospitality sector with the longest and most draconian lockdown in the EU, the government continues to troll the industry by now requiring club goers to buy tickets up to 72 hours in advance.
Irish nightclubs, which were closed for an absolutely unsustainable 585 days during the pandemic due to government restrictions, have received yet another blow to their business just as they begin to open again.
As announced by Fáilte Ireland on Friday:
“Ticketing is required, for the purposes of contact tracing, for all nightclubs and venues and will be the subject of regulations to be put in place next week.”
This has rightly been described by stakeholders in late-night hospitality as an act of “total betrayal” by the government.
The Department of Tourism said it was decided that ticketing for nightclubs and venues should be a mandatory requirement given the “ongoing deterioration of the epidemiological situation”. https://t.co/jsVQ5luhfP
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) October 22, 2021
Industry heads have dubbed the decision “a disaster,” “unworkable”,” “shambolic”, and “Fr. Ted stuff.”
Initially, nightclubs would only be open to those with a valid Covid cert as per government regulations. Now, this newest expansion of the policy will mean that even if one is fully vaccinated and has their cert, they will have to buy a ticket to the event at least 24 hours before the event starts, and possibly as much as 72 hours.
In other words, if you want to go out clubbing on Friday after work, you’ll have to book a ticket to the nightclub earlier in the week or you won’t be allowed in.
“We can’t believe that this is being proposed by the government,” said Donall O’Keeffe, who is chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association.
“It is a disaster for late bars, nightclubs and musicians. It simply won’t be possible to put such a system in place. It contradicts the very nature of social activity in Ireland. Do they know anything about the late-night economy?…The very fact that this bombshell was dropped on the trade at 6.30pm on the very evening they reopen after 585 days of closure shows how appalling the Government planning for our reopening has been. The Government process to reopen our sector has become Keystone Cops meets Father Ted stuff.”
He added:
“If a visitor comes to Dublin are they supposed to have tickets in advance? This thing is just plain nuts.”
All of this, of course, is absolutely correct. It is indeed the policy proposal of either a raving lunatic, or some variety of extraterrestrial lifeform that just found out what a nightclub was 5 minutes ago. No sane human from earth would think this could work.
But that didn’t stop Micheál from defending the policy:
“Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended a new Government requirement which would see all live music events and late-night hospitality ticketed, claiming it “can be done very easily”.
“The virus is dictating this,” he said. “Not the Government. The Government doesn’t want to be putting restrictions on people but we have to respond to the virus as it manifests itself.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended a new Government requirement which would see all live music events and late-night hospitality ticketed, claiming it 'can be done very easily' https://t.co/mji57jlM9y
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) October 24, 2021
But as much as Micheál would like to blame this policy on a mindless virus, it’s a mindless government that is responsible. We don’t pay Covid-19 six figures a year in taxpayer money to do cost/benefit analysis and risk assessment of national challenges. That’s the Taoiseach’s job. And in that, he has failed catastrophically.
Think of it this way: the reason we are told the unvaccinated can’t enter nightclubs is because they will spread Covid to others. And yet, for “contact tracing” purposes, we’re being told that even the vaccinated must book tickets in advance – in other words conceding that, yes, they are at risk of spreading and catching this virus amongst themselves.
If tickets are necessary for contact tracing, then what is the point of the Covid certs? If the government will still impose absurd restrictions on rooms full of vaccinated people, then what the hell is the point of the vaccines? Weren’t they supposed to be the path out of this 20-month-long bollocks bonanza?
There is no longer a single shred of sense, rationality or thought to anything our government does.