Days after stakeholders in the local entertainment industry brought their frustration over lockdown of the sector back to the top of the agenda, the Government revealed it would be reviewing their proposals for a resumption of events.

Addressing the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said several proposals had been sent in about how the industry can return to some kind of functionality.

“What I have directed to be done is that the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, and the Minister of Health, they will be meeting next week to review the proposals … and at the end of that review, we will come back to Parliament and report as to what might be possible,” Holness said.

His comments came two days after Scott Dunn, managing director of Dream Entertainment Ltd, in an open letter to the Government, expressed concern about the lack of a plan for the reopening of the sector, and what he considered the hypocrisy of hotels filling up with visitors to the island and illegal parties being held with hundreds of patrons “under the nose of the most vocal Government minister on the topic of said illegal gatherings in other constituencies”.

“The Government is killing a multi-billion dollar industry and starving its dependents,” wrote Dunn as he pointed to the challenges faced for almost a year by his company and many other industry players including sound system operators, street-side vendors, production and cleaning crews.

“Truthfully, the biggest hypocrisy of all, is the assertion that its events that caused our summer spike in cases, whilst the campaigning of thousands of mask less people shaking hands, hugging and shouting (releasing droplets) is somehow guiltless. All this in a country that if I choose to rent the National Stadium or Sabina Park – venues with capacities in the tens of thousands, I would be breaking the law to have 16 people there, even if they social distanced, sanitised and wore masks – even if they all did antigen tests in the car park and received negative results prior to entry,” he stated in his letter.

Said Dunn: “Honestly, we don’t want to run loose and crazy – that’s what the illegal operators are doing already. We want protocols, we want guidelines… whatever it takes to operate, please just tell us. We want to put food on our table like every other person in the labour force. A few days ago, I had to lay off more of my staff (my family). They need their jobs back. We need to reopen the events industry as this cannot continue!”

He added: “I personally believe that there are some measures that can be put in place. The question is whether or not those measures would make the business economically viable, and so greater thought needs to be put into that.”

In his comments in Parliament on Tuesday, the prime minister noted that the restriction on all events remains in effect.

“Outdoor events, including small outdoor concerts, parties, tailgates, round robins, religious celebrations, conventions, festivals are not permitted,” he said.