Bolshevik Russia: Covid Compliance Officers Will Check Pubs

The Covid certificate will be available for people who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 six months ago.

"There are a number of different layers of checks and balances," she said.

"In the same way that you check your age or your contact details, now the premises will check if you have a cert.

"The types of passes that will be accepted will be prescribed in the regulation by the Minister of Health. They will, of course, include the EU digital code Covid cert, probably the NHS one and one from other countries. 

"Covid compliance officers will be able to come into the premises and check the system so they would check the book to make sure, at the moment, when you enter a restaurant you would have your name and your phone number taken now you'd present your certificate, so the Covid compliance office would check that that was done.

"The compliance officer may enter the premises without warrants at any time to make any, you know, an inspection or examination or observation of the proof that's taken at the door.

"There will not be people spot checking our tables, individual tables in the restaurants, it's really just to assess whether the operator complied with the conditions."

HSE or HSA inspections

"They will come from the HSE or the HSA and the Gardai can be notified of breaches."

There are currently about 350 environmental health officers and 70 inspectors who monitor workplaces for the HSE. There are fines, either for the business, not operating the legislation, or if the customer has forged the document and they're up to €2500, and a final penalty of a cessation order of business.

A working group with industry representatives, the Department of Health and Health and Safety Authority has been set up "to work out exactly how to operationalise all of these measures," and will meet at 2pm today.

Ms Martin added it's "hard to assess the exact date, but it'd be no later than the 25th," for reopening.

"This will be dependent on the passage of the bill through the Houses of Oireachtas over the coming days and of course, the submission to the President for signature."

If you have recovered from Covid19 you can apply to your GP or "apply to a test to centre after you've received that positive PCR tests and that would be valid for 180 days," and a letter from GPs will be valid to enter a restaurant, the Minister added.

The cert can also be requested from the HSE helpline and also a call centre will open on a temporary basis to deal with emergency travel queries, a service that would be fully operational by Monday, July 19.

Ms Martin said the policy was brought in due to the "unprecedented, challenging times of protecting health, but helping restoring jobs, there's about 180,000 jobs on the line here and so we can't throw the doors quickly and allow everyone in."

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