Ireland's new Tourism Recovery Taskforce (TRT) has submitted an eight-point list to the government of suggestions to help the country's tourism sector recover, which includes a call for a move to a one-metre social distancing rule and a request to allow pubs to reopen from July 20.
In addition to the above two suggestions, the TRT's eight-point list also asks the government to consider delaying the reopening of schools until August 31 to extend the domestic tourism season; cutting the VAT rate for the hospitality sector; moving phase four recreational openings to phase three; allowing people to go on domestic holidays from June 29; giving schools the choice of taking the October midterm break during one of two weeks; and removing the two week self-isolation rule for travellers from countries that have low infection rates.
"Urgent"
The Irish Independent quotes TRT chair Ruth Andrews as saying, "It is clear that the issues we are highlighting are urgent from the perspective of those tourism businesses which are evaluating whether and how to reopen.
"As a group, we fully respect the need to maintain appropriate public health measures.
"However, we would not be doing our job properly if we did not alert government as to the importance of these issues in the short term.
"We welcome the measures taken by government thus far which have helped many businesses to survive up to this point. However, by taking these additional steps now, the government would be saving so many businesses and preserving jobs in Irish tourism."
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