Ireland: restaurateurs are fed up with policing
Front of a pub in the Temple Bar district of Dublin, March 15, 2020. Lorraine O'Sullivan / Reuters
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Since this weekend, Ireland has imposed a new rule on pubs and restaurants that serve alcohol: they must record the details of what each table has consumed.
A way for the government to ensure that no one sells alcohol without a meal of at least 9 euros.
Some members of the majority denounced a rule worthy of the Stasi, the East German secret police.
And in restaurants, this umpteenth rule annoys.
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With our correspondent in Dublin,
Emeline Vin
To store receipts and proof of purchase, Jil Thurles bought new storage.
The manager of the Murrays pub sighs as she mentions the new rule, which came into force in Ireland during the weekend of September 5-6, and which requires pubs and restaurants to record in detail what customers have consumed.
“
It's still a new instruction, in addition to everything we already have to do,
” she laments.
We must already keep the contact details of each customer who enters here!
Our customers eat, they drink, we try to make them feel good, that they want to go out again, to see people again… There is still something new which, frankly, is not necessary
” .
"The police already have enough work to not have to check that in addition"
The government justifies the measure by the need to know that any establishment respects the rules, in particular that which wants that there is no alcohol consumed without a dish of a minimum amount of 9 euros.
Insufficient in the eyes of the restaurateur, who declares: “
Those who serve alcohol without offering food, they must close, yes.
But the police already have enough work to do that they don't have to check that out any more.
There, we say to ourselves
: "well, what's next?".
We are already doing our best…
”
For some restaurateurs, this is the last straw.
Some admit that they will not bow to the rule.
Among the customers, Caroline, who only came to lunch to please her sister, finds this new protocol "
frankly ridiculous
".
"
I say, you might as well stay at home!
she declares.
This is our personal data, especially if we pay by card.
The restorers should go and demonstrate, the poor
”.
Seized, the Irish gendarme of private life considered that there was no infringement of the rights of consumers.
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