‘Massive relief’: Hospitality sector reacts to lifting of Covid restrictions

By Rebecca McGirr

THE manager of Ellie’s Restaurant in Dungannon has said the reduction of Covid-19 restrictions has come as a “massive relief”.

Speaking with the Tyrone Herald, Sheelagh McGeary (pictured) said, “It’s a massive relief that they have been lifted because they have really crippled the business and our footfall has been cut into half.”

On Thursday, Ms McGeary’s reaction was common across the hospitality sector as the Executive announced that a number of Covid-19 restrictions, which were put in place after Christmas to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant, would be lifted.

At noon on Friday, mandated table service in licensed premises was removed, as was ‘the rule of six’ which limited the number of people at any single table to half a dozen.

Ms McGeary explained the burden of these restrictions, not only in terms of the financial cost to her business, but also the adverse impact on staff morale.

She said, “We have had to put an extra member of staff on shift at all times to check customers for vaccine passports so, we were having to pay another member of staff to do that. And it is terrible the abuse that our staff have taken from some people just for simply doing their job.”

Further rules are set to be relaxed from noon on Wednesday as vaccine passports in pubs, restaurants and cinemas will no longer be required, nightclubs will be allowed to reopen and dancing and indoor standing events will also be able to resume.

However, vaccine passports will still be needed for entry into nightclubs and indoor unseated and partially-seated events with 500 or more people in attendance.

Mickey McElroy, who owns the Main Street entertainment complex in Omagh, said the restrictions “decimated the business”.

He said, “While it’s great news to see that we’re hopefully evolving out of Covid, I would have to question and I think a lot of people in the hospitality sector will be questioning, where the evidence was that created this complete panic in our industry?”

He continued, “We’re relieved now that the restrictions have been lifted but we have to start off as if it was a new canvas and completely rebuild the business. We’ve got to create confidence in our business and create confidence in the people that we are hoping to get back that we refused at the door because they maybe didn’t have the right paperwork.”

The Executive is set to meet again on February 10. First Minister Paul Givan said the meeting would be an “important one” and that he was hoping to see some movement on the wearing of face masks.