Gardaí are investigating a campaign encouraging businesses to reopen their doors in spite of coronavirus restrictions.

Emails and leaflets have been sent to businesses in Tralee urging them to band together and reopen, while in Dublin, an anti-lockdown protest is planned for this weekend.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Tralee Councillor Mike Sheehy said a lot of the information used in the campaign is “totally false and untrue.”

“There have been a number of leaflet drops and also a number of digital billboards that have been seen throughout Tralee over the last number of weeks,” he said.

“Both of those were pre-Christmas, I actually had one of the leaflets dropped to my own home by a group.

“More recently, within the last ten days, businesses have been contracted by what is a faceless group, there are no names attached to these emails, urging them to open next week.”

File photo of Tralee in County Kerry, 27-05-2009. Image: The Irish Image Collection/Zuma Press/PA Images

He said the campaign was a “sinister and pretty cynical attempt to exploit frustrations inside the business community and the community as a whole.”

He noted that one-in-five jobs in County Kerry are a direct result of the tourism industry and admitted there is definitely frustration in the sector.

“To be honest with you though, from direct conversations I have been having with businesses on the ground in Tralee, they are aware that COVID is still a huge issue and it is one we really have to deal with currently,” he said.

“We are hopefully moving through the gears. There is light at the end of the tunnel but unfortunately this type of disinformation does not help matters.”

Reopening Tralee

One of the letters delivered to homes and businesses in recent days claims to be from a “group of business owners who have come together to organise a reopening of small businesses in Tralee” form next Monday.

It labels the current public health restrictions “unfair and unjust” and claims to have evidence that the majority of Ireland’s cases are not related to the personal services industry.

It also claims mass-disobedience campaign saw 50,000 businesses in Italy and 20,000 in Poland reopen in defiance of restrictions.

While organisers of Italy’s ‘#IoApro’ (I Open) campaign expected 50,000 businesses to reopen in protest last month, Italian media reports suggest far fewer eventually took part.

The same can be said of Poland’s #OtwieraMY (#WeAreOpening) campaign.

Disinformation

Also on the show, Ciaran O’Connor, disinformation analyst with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said the campaign is taking advantage of the absence of solutions or an exit plan for Level Five.

“The solutions they are offering only serve their political objectives,” he said. “This leaflet is unattributed to anybody.

“They say this is a group of business owners but there is nothing to support that. They are leaning in vague statistics from other countries to make it seem more plausible and to try and stir people into actions.

“But there is a danger that if businesses owners or people do act on this, the people who started this disinformation campaign are nowhere to be seen.”

Caution

Cllr Sheehy said none of the businesses he has been speaking to in recent days are contemplating reopening.

“I would just urge people to double-check and fact-check to make sure you are getting your information from reliable sources,” he said.