Only days after an opinion piece from Cormac Cashman of Mother was published, describing how lack of leadership from the government is crushing the live events sector in Ireland, a campaign has been launched calling for a roadmap to reopening.

The Uplift petition campaign, created by Buzz O’Neill, calls on the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, and other Government Ministers to provide clarity and support to a sector that has been especially decimated by the impact of Covid. O’Neill shared…

“After 18 months of this pandemic, everyone in the night-club and live events industry are utterly exasperated that our Government still have yet to finalise a plan to get our sector reopened. It’s insulting to the 35,000 highly skilled workforce or the €3.5 billion in turnover that we create each year, that our Taoiseach or Tanaiste don’t have the decency and good grace to attend a meeting they were invited to by Minister Catherine Martin last week.

“We are now well past the date for a roadmap. We need solid dates for fully reopening our businesses and putting food on the table for our families.

“Scenes yesterday in Croke Park only further compound our anger, that there seems to be one set of rules for the GAA and one set for us. With the highest uptake of vaccinations in Europe, our one simple question to the Taoiseach and NPHET is this: At what point with an almost fully vaccinated population can we reopen our clubs at full capacity?”

The campaign letter explains, “On the 12th of March 2020, over 500 days ago, the live event industry ground to an abrupt halt. The sector that brings people their most memorable moments has been closed by mandate for more than 500 days, and now faces an imminent collapse unless our sector is properly considered in Covid-19 public health planning.

“We are now the only sector still fully closed without any Roadmap. Music, arts, and performance are the soul of the Irish people, rooted deeply in our traditions and our psyche […] We are becoming increasingly fearful of the reduction in pandemic income supports that are being pared back next month with no real prospect of increasing work back to pre-pandemic levels.”

It continues, “We would like your support to set a plan for the safe return of our industry and in the meantime, protection for our thousands of workers, many who are availing of income support. We need you to take urgent action to give us a plan, give us hope and a map that we can follow as we navigate public health advice and the prospect of income supports being removed.”

“This is about the future of our sector. Please give us a viable roadmap and give us assurances that we have not been forgotten about.”

To add your name to the call for live events reopening roadmap, follow the link here.