Anti-vaxx cert Wexford restaurant owners must pay HSE costs and wait to open business – Independent.ie

30 comments
  1. >following a four hour hearing the previous day in Wexford, which neither could attend as they were recovering from Covid-19.

    Satire is dead.

  2. From their Facebook, in response to someone saying they should donate their go fund me to the health service:

    “Fuck you beast … my money, it will last until you die, then I will go drinking. Bastard piece of shit.”

  3. They raised 20k off the unvaxed headers…. Omfg… Is it a crime to set up a go fund me and pretend I’m antivax?

  4. The owners of a Co Wexford restaurant have been ordered to keep it closed to indoor diners until Wednesday, and to pay legal costs after they lost a case at court last week.

    A seven day cessation order was imposed on the restaurant’s owners Luigi and Lucia Aleo of The Forge Italian Castlebridge on Wednesday at Gorey District Court, following a four hour hearing the previous day in Wexford, which neither could attend as they were recovering from Covid-19.

    The HSE took the case under the Health Act as amended in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Liam O’Connell SC for the HSE, said the health body is responsible with ensuring the legislation is fully complied with, including that restaurant owners prohibit people from entering their premises except under certain conditions.

    Eoghan Cole SC for the respondents applied for an adjournment to enable his clients attend a hearing, but was refused by Judge John Cheatle on the grounds that the case was of a technical nature.

    Mr O’Connell said the HSE’s case was that the restaurant owners refused to comply with the Health Act with regard to checking Covid certs.

    The court heard both defendants caught Covid and Mr Perri ended up having to attend hospital in Wexford General.

    “Mr Perri was quite ill. He is now well and has recovered. Both are observing public health guidelines,” said Mr Cole said, seeking an adjournment.

    Mr O’Connell said the respondents have outright refused to comply with the act. Mr Cole argued that the court was not in a position to argue that a risk to public health exists within their premises. He said there were no allegations against his clients regarding breaches of mask wearing or social distancing guidelines, at The Forge.

    Mr Cole said there have been three similar cases, and to date no restaurant was been given a cessation order by a judge in Ireland.

    Judge Cheatle asked Mr Cole if he was saying there is no requirement under the law for Covid certs to be checked.

    “There is no denying that the act requires proof of immunisation to be checked by restaurateurs. The question which is begged is whether that requirement is compatible with relevant EU law, including the law which created the Covid cert in the first place and certain data protection legislation.”

    Mr Cole said if a domestic EU state legal arrangement is in conflict with EU law, the latter trumps the former. He argued that the closure of the restaurant for seven days would have a detrimental impact on the owners’ livelihood.

    Mr O’Connell said he was seeking a cessation order as they had failed to adhere to a compliance notice to check Covid certs at the door and maintain a record of that and to make such records available to a compliance officer. He said it wasn’t a closure order and the business could still trade as a take away.

    Mr Cole said his clients were disadvantaged by not being able to give evidence and attend due to circumstances beyond their control.

    Mr O’Connell said newspaper articles and social media posts by Mr Perri have highlighted their refusal to check the certs, which were described as a dictator’s Nazi pass.

    He said a cessation order can be put in place to limit the spread of a disease.

    Outlining the circumstances under which food can be consumed indoors at present, Mr O’Connell said individuals must be seated and eat and drink only while seated, a record of the person must be kept for a box ticking exercise by a staff member, ID and a Covid Cert must be checked and this action must be recorded, without any information pertaining to be the diner being kept.

    “These records are to be held for up to 28 days. It’s totally different to contact tracing,” said Mr O’Connell.

    Mr Cole said Irish law is in clear conflict with EU law, including the charter for human rights, and GDPR regulations.

    A HSE compliance officer gave evidence said she was alerted to a potential breach of the health act at The Forge and attended the premises on November 17. She spoke with Ms Aleo and found that there was no system in place to check diner’s Covid status. “The operator informed us he is not checking the immunisation status of his diners. I found that the operator was in breach of the legislation and I informed them that failure to comply would result in legal action including a compliance notice and a cessation order.”

    The officer gave the owners a verbal direction, followed by a written notice two days later.

    She found a number of diners eating at The Forge during her visits, adding that there was no record of their immunisation from Covid.

    She returned on November 24 and spoke once again with Ms Aleo, once again finding breaches of the act.

    Mr Cole asked if there was any other evidence of non compliance and was told there wasn’t.

    Mr O’Connell said the legislation sets out a grave and serious risk to public health from the transmission of Covid-19 within indoor premises due to the transmissibility of Covid, formerly applying for the cessation order.

    He said such an order can be made for failure with the law through ignorance, incapacity or otherwise

    “It’s a deliberate and intentional frustration of the application of the law. The fact that the ongoing breach is deliberate and persistent weighs heavily in favour of marking the order,” said Mr O’Connell.

    Mr Cole said click and collect would have no meaningful source of income for his clients. He said the Covid certificate of immunity was introduced to facilitate cross border travel. He said the Irish application of the law is interfering with the fundamental rights and freedoms of EU citizens.

    “The legislation should to be used to establish the right to be vaccinated.”

    Mr Cole said the law is in breach of GDPR as restaurateurs are required to retain a diner’s name and contact details for 28 days, while also completing a Covid cert box-ticking exercise.

    “It’s an illusory separation and a clear breach of GDPR.”
    Mr Cole said discrimination exists as proof of immunisation is valid as a means of entry to a restaurant and yet a negative PCR or antigen test isn’t, adding that under EU law people cannot be discriminated against on the basis of whether or not they have a certain certificate.

    “Domestic law only allows for proof of vaccination or recovery, not an antigen test.”

    Mr Cole argued that this goes against the EU charter of human rights, adding that everybody has the right to privacy regarding their personal data. This includes freedom to conduct a business in accordance with EU law and practices, he said.

    Mr Cole said the Irish law regarding Covid cert verification has been inappropriately enacted, adding that no data protection impact assessment was carried out.

    “This is litigated in Ireland for the first time before you.”

    He said Judge Cheatle had not been furnished with evidence of the nature of the public health risk posed to diners at The Forge, urging him not to be swayed by the ‘clamour of the emergence of the Covid pandemic’.

    Mr O’Connell said there was no conflict with EU legislation regarding the freedom of movement of citizens between countries.

    “It’s accepted that some, but not all certs can be accepted,” he said, adding that it wasn’t the respondents data that was being processed.

    He said a consensual process that took place prior to anyone entering a restaurant in Ireland presently.

    “These measures were introduced amid an urgent threat to public health,” in the public interest to safeguard life, Mr O’Connell said.

    Mr Cole said the restaurant owner is the person called upon to process the data.

    He said his clients had planned to reopen their business last Thursday as their period of self isolation would have concluded by then.

    “It’s undoubtedly an important matter as this is the first occasion in which evidence I have outlined has been litigated on.”

    Judge Cheatle put the matter back till the following day, when he made the cessation order which expires this Wednesday.

  5. Does anyone have the full article? It’s behind a paywall. But glad they got what’s coming to them. Other restaurant owners have followed every rule while knowing their business could be at risk. So it’s about time these two got their asses handed to them.

  6. Honestly, the law is discriminatory and I don’t agree with it but this guy seems like a piece of work. I agree with him in principle, that if he wishes to operate his business like this he should have that right but the way he speaks and presents himself online is vile.

    And before anyone attacks me, I am vaccinated and pro vaccination but also staunchly anti mandate or required vaccination. If you believe a vaccine works, you shouldn’t care if someone else is vaccinated or not.

  7. >These measures were introduced amid an urgent threat to public health,” in the public interest to safeguard life

    You can justify literally anything with “interest of public health”. Such a weak argument. And calling it an “urgent threat” really does seem to be ignoring the actual statistics of covid in Ireland.

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