“There is a risk always I think when you go to Twitter, of a certain number of people misbehaving in a certain number of places, there can be a bit of an overreaction to it.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said it’s important that the Government doesn’t “lose sight of that fact that we are actually encouraging people to be outdoors” after large crowds gathered on South William Street over the weekend.
Speaking on the Hard Shoulder on Monday, the Tánaiste said that outdoors is “much safer” than indoors, adding that a majority of people have been abiding by public health advice.
“One thing I will say is I didn’t like to see the scenes that we saw in South William Street the other day or some of the problems that we’ve seen in Cork or Portobello Plaza.
“But, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that we are actually encouraging people to be outdoors. Outdoors is much safer than indoors,” he said.
“Certainly what I saw around town yesterday, around Herbert Park around Donnybrook around all of town, was people gathering in the outdoors responsibly and sitting in relatively small groups.
“It’s important – there is a risk always I think when you go to Twitter of a certain number of people misbehaving in a certain number of places, there can be a bit of an overreaction to it.
“The vast majority of people I think, 90% of people 90% of the time are following guidelines.”
Varadkar also said that Dublin City Council needs to put in place more bins and public toilets, as well as exploring the possibility of allowing restaurants and shops to allow people to use their bathrooms in the city.
“Well, for a start, more bins. I spent a bit of time on Sunday around Herbert park and around the Donnybrook area, and there were more bins but they need more too, I would definitely like to see more provision of public facilities and public loos,” he added.
“Having said that though, we think we may be able to get around that in one way by allowing, for example, pubs, restaurants, shops, to allow people to use their loos.”
Varadkar said that while he understands the frustration of people who don’t have back gardens as he himself lives in an apartment, the Government has ruled out allowing outdoor dining to open at an earlier date.
“I don’t have a back garden so I can tell you all about it…I live in an apartment, so the Pheonix Park is my garden and I’d be there nearly every day,” he continued.
“The decision is Monday and that’s what’s going to happen. That’s the cabinet’s decision on that, we did toy with that possibility, but we’re not going to change it now.
“It does appear that the weather is not going to be so nice this weekend, unfortunately. But, that’s probably a good thing in terms of people congregating outside.”
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