IAFD News A Note from IAFD President
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ere we are over halfway through the second year of this pandemic. I think a lot of us are suffering from Covid fatigue at this stage, everyone is tired of the conversations about restrictions, guidelines, social distancing, variants, vaccines etc. We have been though at lot and if Covid has taught us anything it is that people are resilient and can adapt to new ways of living when we need to. The board of the IAFD have been busy throughout the year even though we are restricted to meet by Zoom. Our 2020/21 funeral certificate award course has finished, and students are awaiting their results. Earlier in the year, we carried out a survey of members seeking their views on various topics. The Board are now looking at ways of implementing some of the findings of that survey. I know a lot of funeral directors were frustrated by the vaccination roll out, the Board and I share that frustration, we tried everything in our power to get a dedicated vaccination programme for funeral workers and while we received a lot of empty platitudes, we got no vaccines. Thankfully the governments vaccine programme by age cohort after a slow start has been effective and most people that wanted to receive a vaccine should have one by now. As president of the IAFD I would like to thank all funeral directors who have adhered to government guidelines regarding the advertising of funeral arrangements, and I would ask any funeral directors who aren’t adhering to the guidelines to please do so. I have written to the Government and asked for a framework to be put in place for the return of funerals to pre Covid practices as soon as possible and, am awaiting a response. I would like to sympathise with any funeral directors who have lost loved ones during the pandemic Covid related or otherwise, as we all know it has been a very difficult time for grieving families. Hopefully it won’t be long before we can meet again in person, in the meantime take care and stay safe.
Donal Forde IAFD President 20 | FuneralTimes
