Taoiseach Micheál Martin has rejected claims the introduction of new laws requiring pubs and restaurants to retain individual details of food consumption was a communications disaster.
The new rules will compel restaurants and pubs serving food to make a record of all meals ordered. They must be able to make these receipts available to a member of An Garda Síochána for up to 28 days after the meal.
“Communications could have been better,” the Taoiseach acknowledged, while insisting criticisms of the new law were overstated and the obligations it would place on pub, and restaurant, owners had been misinterpreted.
“The Government has no interest in knowing what people are eating,” he said, saying the regulations had been designed to deal with rogue operators who were serving alcohol but not food.
In comments echoed by other Ministers, he insisted it would not place an extra burden on publicans and restaurateurs.
The measure has caused anger among gastropubs with many threatening a boycott and saying that it would lumber them with an unfair administrative burden.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Martin dismissed the suggestion Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was a liability to the Government, saying it was not fair to blame one individual as the decision on this issue was a Government-wide one.
He also said the regulations would soon become redundant, once so-called wet pubs were allowed reopen.
Asked how the new regulations would deal with pub crawls and excessive drinking, Mr Martin pointed to personal responsibility that applied to everyone in relation to their behaviour.
“We do not want in a microscopic way to regulate people’s behaviour. We want to get a fair situation for all that are operating.”
Till reciept
Speaking on RTÉ Radio’s News at One, Mr Donnelly said he did not understand the reaction of the Opposition and members of his own Government to the regulations. “I don’t understand why there’s a problem.”
He said pubs and restaurants were already keeping a till receipt for VAT purposes and these receipts were kept for up to six or seven years; the regulations meant they just needed to make it available for inspection for 28 days.
He also said that the new regulations would help enforcement against “the tiny minority” who were flouting the rules.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the new rules were designed to cut down on rogue pubs masquerading as restaurants.
He admitted the number of incidents involved was small. “This is designed to crack down on misbehaviour of a small number of pubs operating as restaurants, not to inconvenience the vast majority of pubs and restaurants,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said there was no requirement for gastropubs to provide a detailed breakdown of what customers ate. “It is a requirement they must be able to produce evidence that a substantial meal has been served,” he said.
He said most restaurants and gastropubs had been open for months and only one cluster of infections of any significance ha been reported from them.
“This is not in any way to inconvenience them and it has been misinterpreted,” the Tánaiste added.
