Newtownabbey hair salon owner’s anger over enforced closure under pandemic restrictions

Matthew McIlveen described the move as “quite literally taking food off the tables of families in our country”.

He said that the sector seems to have been “largely ignored” by ministers and “feels like sacrificial lambs to the slaughter”.

A separate petition urging salons to be kept open has been signed by 1,139 people.

Mr McIlveen added: “Our industry has countless self-employed people and is entirely dominated by small businesses, much less able to recover than large companies that are allowed to continue to open their doors, with little or no power to enforce the necessary use of masks.

“Ironically the fact that we are small, personal businesses, allows us much greater scope to enforce these rules.

“We were among the first industries to start closing our doors before advised to, we have some of the best abilities to trace our clientele at any given moment and yet you seem to think we can’t possibly be trusted to continue to jump through the extra hoops set in place.

“I think I speak for the majority of people in this country when I say that I feel much safer in a small, controlled environment than I do in any of the multi-national businesses you’ve allowed to keep trading.

“Surely, keeping our money local is a much better way to help the economy of Northern Ireland thrive.”

Mr Mclveen went on to say that he has “nothing but praise” for the support of his local environmental health officer.

“However, all this seems to have fallen on the deaf ears of the Executive. Hair and beauty salons are generally quite low risk areas providing mitigating measures are taken.

“I have genuinely lost count of the extra financial cost we have pumped consistently into our brand-new business, and yet somehow environments that I see as much higher risk can stay open.”

Read further Covid-related closure story here

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter

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