Covid 19 Part XXXV-956,720 ROI (5,952 deaths) 452,946 NI (3,002 deaths) (08/01) Read OP

Yeah, the whole, "Giving them time to get ready" doesn't make any sense. Most places have still been open until 8pm anyway, there's not a lot of "getting ready" required to keep those doors open a few extra hours.

Fingers crossed. It'll be a bumper Jan/Feb for hospitality, at a usually very quiet time.

Tony playing 4d chess again. If the government announce opening times extensions for tonight they'll have given nobody time to prepare. If they announce the extensions from a future date they'll be questioned why they didn't release the restrictions from today. They. Cannot. Win.

He's really making his moves to transform the Republic into his Empire.

Masks will fizzle out naturally I suspect.

Once covid retreats out of news, people won't feel a pressure to wear them.

The main consideration for hospitality is stock and staff, I know my local this morning is trying to change rosters for the weekend now to take account of the changes, along with ordering more stock in & by all accounts the suppliers are out the door with late bars, clubs etc trying to get stock in ASAP so it could be a long day for deliveries.

Apart from that most places are good to go.

If you can open fire away, some might need a few more days but really it's down to the individual business now to make that call.

A lot of those talking about being scared are just waffling anyway.

I've often seen these people saying they're concerned but they still go the pub every week.

Just normal Irish whinging rubbish that people don't actually mean.

+1 Any business operating under restricted trading hours is doing so because of health advise. That advise was totally removed yesterday evening so it should be 100% up to individual businesses based on their own logistics to open from the second the restrictive health guidance was removed.

They dont have to open if they are not ready !!

2 weeks ago when we basically stopped giving PCR tests to under 40s?

Any 'public' (ie political) issue is built around divisiveness with media encouraging people to take sides. Esp. feminism but really everything.

Statistically we had full vaccination (>90%) so there was no reason to have a big, bitter fight with slanging, blame, negativity, hatred and recriminations but we had it anyway.

Guarantee we will rotate onto some new blame issue where some group is perceived as sabotaging the rest of society. 'Toxic white males' perhaps? Or are we meant to be angry at immigrants? Hard to keep track.

I fúcked the boxes of masks I've somehow managed to accumulate into the recycling bin this morning. I'm done with them. Make zero sense when all other restrictions have been removed. Without other restrictions, masks are just naturally going to disappear as people won't bother. Already seen a big drop recently.

They personally don't bother me too much. But they're pointless considering how a vast majority wear them. And the quality of them being poor too. I'd say if we never implemented mask wearing in social settings, things would be pretty much the same. I believe high quality masks used correctly in certain environments such as hospitals can be effective. But how they were used in the wider society rendered them useless. And on that note. Bye bye masks.

We all damn well know they'll try to open even if they're not ready and place a stupid amount of pressure on whatever staff they can pick up.

In short: The legal prohibition from opening past 8pm can't just be lifted on the spot due to procedural red tape, but the government can informally ask that the regulations be ignored and advise businesses that they can open tonight if they want. Technically they'd be in breach of the legislation, but they wouldn't be prosecuted. It sounds very half-arsed, but it's not without precedent that laws remain formally on the books but are ignored/unenforced because they are due to be stood down.