There’s been a furious backlash to new rules asking restaurants to keep a record of what food customers have ordered.
The measure requires businesses to keep a record of people’s substantial meals for 28 days.
Restaurant groups say they weren’t consulted about the changes – and pub representatives say it’s “bureaucracy gone mad”.
Chef Kevin Dundon, who owns Dunbrody House in Co. Wexford, doesn’t think the new rules are necessary saying “We kind of maintain so many dockets at this stage and so many regulations between one thing & another, I just think keeping a docket for every spend that comes through the hotel with a name attached to it is a step too far”.
But Minister Simon Harris is defending the new rule. While he admits there’s been a lack of clarity around the issue he says they’re simply asking businesses to keep a copy of the receipt noting “The government doesn’t care whether you had a dessert or a cup of coffee or whether you went for the banoffee or, as one publican asked me last night, if you changed from the garlic sauce to the pepper sauce, I mean it’s not about this. The reality is as of today the law is you can only open a pub or a restaurant serving alcohol if you’re serving food as well and I’ve heard people talking about how do you enforce that, how do you ask people to enforce things if there can’t be proof.”
The new rule is being described as excessive and unnecessary for managing the risk of Covid-19.
Elizabeth Ferris from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties says the level of detail required amounts to policing surveillance.
