Sunday Thoughts

It’s been a fairly good week for me. I’ve felt quite settled. I’ve been to a couple of places, socially distanced and wearing a mask. It’s been a bit strange because although I felt comfortable at the time I slept very badly afterwards. I’m guessing it might have been because I was talking to people, and outside my family, I’m not used to that.

Phase 4 of the easing of the Covid restrictions was meant to take place tomorrow (July 20th), it’s now been postponed until August 10th. I know why it’s been done, the numbers of cases are rising and sadly more people have died. There are a couple of things I don’t understand though.

I think it was very late in the day to tell pubs they can’t open. I know so many pubs were ordering stock, adapting their premises and training their staff and honestly I don’t understand the difference between pubs serving food and pubs not serving food. The pubs serving food have been open for a few weeks now. The food is a ‘substantial meal’ priced at €9 or over. How can the virus tell the difference?

I personally think the more places that are open, the less chance of overcrowding in places. I’ve seen it in the supermarkets, now that other shops are open there is usually no need to queue to get into the supermarkets and it’s far quieter.

I’ve spoken to a few businesses who aren’t reopening and it’s very sad for them. One told me they relied on summer trade to pay back bills accumulated over the winter and they’ve lost most of the summer now. I’ve heard of landlords demanding rent for all the months the businesses were closed. On top of that the businesses that are reopening have all the extra outlay on adapting their business to the new regulations.

Of course I’m not an expert so this is just my opinion. I certainly felt safer when we have the duo of Leo and Simon running the country, I felt like they had some kind of authority and were able to steer us through this stormy time. Now I feel like we are on a rudderless ship and it worries me.

I honestly can’t see the point in all these regulations when flights are coming in and out of the country. People are told if they are coming on holiday they have to quarantine for 14 days – but is that happening? Is it being enforced? I would have rather seen the country closed to visitors, similar to the way New Zealand did, if that happened and the cases were low as they were previously, maybe the pubs and other businesses could reopen.

As I say I’m no expert. I just hope we aren’t heading to another lockdown.