Coronavirus in ROI/NI part 2

[Zantedeschia]

Following on from the other thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/craicnet/3834552-Coronavirus-in-Ireland-N-Ireland?pg=40&order=

@eggandonion me too.

Just catching up on all today's posts, was a busy day at work today. Funny to see all the talk of pancakes because ds had just asked me if we can make pancakes for breakfast on Sunday

Thank you for the banana bread/banana oaty biscuity thing recipes. I think I might try both tomorrow. Though I'm not sure what EarlofEggMcMuffin means by "using up the Easter chocolate" - the Easter chocolate in this house was used up well before Easter [sob]

I too was shocked by EarlofEggMcMuffin having to use up the Easter chocolate.
Use up !!!!! Couldn't you just savour it with a cup of coffee or tea for breakfast like I do.

UnlikeNewAccountForCorona, we waited til Easter Sunday to open ours.

On the home baking/domestic goddess front, I made porridge bread yesterday and it was pretty good. here I have been ordering sheep's yogurt online from here which is great because I'm lactose intolerant and sheep's yogurt makes me less likely to asphyxiate my family with toxic farts.

I can't get baking powder, every recipe I decide to try needs baking powder!

Ds has a part time job in a coffee chain and got a call yesterday to say they are opening up again on Saturday. He told them he can't work because we have a vulnerable person in the house, but from the WhatsApp messages going around they'll be fully staffed. Coincidentally, or maybe not, one of his friends working in an independent cafe was told they are opening up again on Saturday.

I'm really cross about it. Take away coffee provision is not an essential service. Both these cafes are in touristy areas which would usually be very busy on a sunny weekend. It's hard enough to get people to stay in with the beautiful weather we've been having, they don't need the incentive of a coffee with their daily walk.

Some cafes were open for take away after the school shut down but before the lockdown, but my understanding was that only food shops and chemists are allowed now.

They are losing their fucking minds on fb over the keelings workers.
Its unbearable trying to figure out what exactly they are mad about on there. Am I missing something - if they are quarantined for 14 days, what's the problem?

That's ridiculous, coffee shops are not essential. I understand it's tough, a lot of small coffee shops and Cafés are struggling even with government assistance not still.
Did you see the video of Keelings workers arriving for fruit picking. Again I understand it's their business, fruit is ripe but they put airport staff, hostesses etc at risk bringing in nearly 200 workers. How can Keelings guarantee that these people will stay on site how do they know that they are not infected and Asymptomatic. Did Keelings do tests and wait 2 weeks for results? So many questions.
Shame on them and shame in Ryanair.

I dont know what happened tbh iblinked.
They released a statement saying the followed all the guidance. I dont see what the alternative is. Cant leave crops rotting on the fields and leave shelves bare in supermarkets. What else could they do

I cant believe I'm on Keelings side! I think I'm just agin' conspiracy minded fb loons and applying it even to sensible questioners.

I think we are all pretty glad of our food security at the moment but probably would not be too happy if prices suddenly trebled to allow food production to occur with staff paid enough to tempt them to work in spite of €350 being available when not working and being organised in such away that they can work in a socially distant manner.
I don’t know the answer to that one.

What else could they fo ? 7Days asked.

Surely amongst the 25% now unemployed in Ireland there would be people wanting/ willing to work. With safe guards put in place of course.

The same has happened in the UK in recent days. Workers flying in from Eastern Europe to work on fruit/ vegetable farms.

It was a ryanair whistleblower apparently. I dont know, I know they do it every year but still. Again I dont know the ins and outs of it, I dont know what precautions they put in place. I dont buy their fruit anyway because it's too expensive as it is and they go off too quickly.
Most Irish people wont pick fruit, that's why they fly these people in every year they rely on them and students. They really want do it now.

That should be they really dont want to do it now. Not with the 350 payment

Unless they take prisoners out in chain gangs, I don't know how they'd get the harvest sorted. Western Europe has been relying on Eastern European migrant workers for years. When I was young students used to head to East Anglia to the jam factories and Birds Eye, More stylish ones went grape picking in France. I think East Enders used to camp in Kent for the hop harvest.
If we want food, we need input from humans, and sometimes local humans don't get out of bed for less than a tenner an hour. The accommodation used by migrants in East Anglia is dire, I always wash my fruit and veg.

@eggandonion I think the chain gang idea is great idea. Although Amnasty may not think so. It may be more of a deterrent than jail.
I dont know, do we need Strawberries that much? We've never been through anything like this before so it's hard to say. I mean you can make the agurment that fruit is coming in from Spain and Italy so is that so different? Keelings have released a statement about the whole thing.
I really dont know but this is a good debate. I love a good debate that's not all one sided. A lot of facebook posts are 100% against this so I like to read other sides.

Theres just so many knock on effects. it's the easiest thing in the world to rant and rave about how they dont care and they are a disgrace.
But we need ag workers to keep us fed.
Irish people wont do the work for a price the consumer is willing to pay.
Foreigners come over, a few hard weeks is an attractive earner to someone in a low cost of living economy. As Irish people did ourselves a generation ago, so I'm not dissing any E Europeans here.
Keelings probably have contracts with Bulgarian agencies, may well cost to break them. Prices go up, and fruit rots in the field, and empty shelves.

I am just disheartened at the lazy cynicism on display among the fb frothers. Maybe it's me. Woukdnt be the first time, to be fair.

@7days yes there is a lot to weigh up. I must admit at first I was just angry, i cant see my nephews, my grandchild and here were people coming in. Then I calmed down a bit and thought about it. I'm still not 100 percent happy but at the same time I dont know what they could do.
On Facebook they're saying students could do it, the homeless etc. I wonder though how many of these works come over every year and are relying on this wage. On the other side if the country, we are in a pandemic where people are dying and movement is restricted. Still It's not as simple as black and white, there is a grey area.
Hard to get a balanced debate on Facebook, there is no grey area on Facebook.
Surely though 180 people isnt enough for a big chain like Kellings,are they going to bring in more?

I keep spelling keelings wrong. I swear I do know how to spell it. I dont know why I put an extra l in.

It's been a PR disaster for Keelings, I think their handling of it has been poor and their statement has only inflamed things.

I read there's approximately another 1000 migrant workers due but don't know if it's true or not.

I think from an infection control point of view the way Keelings are doing it is probably better than using local labour. Especially if the workers travel as a group and stay in the area in which they are working. Local labour would presumably come from a fairly large catchment area and would commute between work and home. If anything Bulgarians have more basis to be annoyed as all these workers will be returning home once the harvest is over, and potentially distributing the virus all over their home country.

Keelings are catching the heat for this. But the other ones will be at the same crack just wont allow themselves to be caught.

I think it depends how the incoming workers are being accommodated and fed. If they are staying on site, or all together, and if they are being provided with food and other necessities so that they don't have to leave the fruit farms, then flying them in for a couple of months is no harm.

It's like the outback farms in Australia. They fly groups in who stay on site and work for a couple of months, then head back to the cities. Awful conditions but (relatively) good pay makes it bearable for young people.

If students were busing in from all over the country and going home at night it would be much worse from an infection point of view.

Keelings should clarify where they are all staying, though.