Education and hospitality unfairly bearing the brunt of Northern Ireland’s new Covid restrictions

The DUP fought a commendably robust rearguard action against calls from the other parties in the Executive to close schools for between four and six weeks.

It is a matter of significant regret and concern that the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP are prepared to sideline our children’s education for even longer and repeat the mistakes made in the spring.

The danger now is that pressure will mount from those same parties to extend school closures beyond the two weeks if there is no substantial fall in the number of new coronavirus cases over the next fortnight.

Sadly it will be no surprise if cases don’t fall, because the main cause of the spiralling infection rate is understood to be rules on house parties being flagrantly ignored in places like Derry and Strabane Council and greater Belfast.

Attitudes in those places are unlikely to change, especially given that Sinn Fein’s own top team, including Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill, ignored the regulations in the summer in the highest profile way imaginable at the funeral of IRA leader Bobby Storey.

The other big loser is the hospitality industry. Restaurants and bars endured the first lockdown, then spent thousands making their premises Covid-safe and many may now go out of business after being told to close for at least four weeks. As Simon Hamilton, the chief executive of Belfast Chamber, said yesterday, this feels like an “economy breaker, not a circuit breaker”.

No one is pretending the Executive has it easy, but the measures on schools and hospitality won’t work unless those flagrantly breaking rules on indoor gatherings wise up.