Knee jerk escalation of business closures would be severe blow to economy

Ibec, the group that represents Irish business, has said that a knee jerk escalation of business closures in Dublin would undermine the credibility of the Government’s new Covid framework and be a severe blow to economic and business certainty for the wider business community.  

Commenting on the NPHET recommendation for additional restrictions for the hospitality sector in Dublin, which would see further mass closures of many businesses with little or no notice, Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said: “Moving beyond Level 3 to a ‘3.5’ would undermine the credibility of the codified system, and framework process introduced this week, for the entire business community. It would damage the certainty which the framework was supposed to deliver and is worrying for businesses in all sectors of the economy across the entire country. Government’s decision must preserve and certainty and credibility of this week’s new framework.  

“Based on the transmissions data that is currently in the public domain it is difficult to see the logic for a recommendation which would disproportionately target one sector of the economy at such short notice, given the costly implications for managing perishable stock and workforce planning and the hardship this will mean for many employees, particularly given recent social welfare changes.”