PUBS STILL IN THE DARK OVER REOPENING NEXT MONDAY
PUBLICANS have expressed frustration that they still don’t know when all bars can reopen.
Pubs that serve meals have already reopened, with the rest scheduled to open on Monday.
But landlords say even with just days to go they have received no official notice.
And last night there was further doubt cast, with reports that serious concerns were expressed at the prospect of pubs opening by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) at a meeting yesterday evening.
For the trade, one landlord said pubs are being treated ‘badly’ while another said he was ‘still in the dark’ about the guidelines bars will need to follow.
Landlord Alan Campbell, of The Bankers, on Trinity Street, central Dublin, said: ‘My colleagues in the other pubs are being treated really badly by the Government because we really needed to know a few days ago where they’re going. They’ve staff to organise, they’ve to clean their pubs, back-to-work certifications for staff, training courses and stuff like that.
‘Yet they’ve been told nothing. They’ve said it’s too early to make a decision. Too early to make a decision for something that’s going to happen on Monday? A lot of these places have big numbers of staff and it’s an absolute disgrace that the staff don’t have a clue. To open a pub after months, there are so many logistical things.
‘Ice machines that haven’t been plugged in for nearly four months now, there’s a lot to it and it’s very unfair for the pubs not to know.’
He said ‘ideally’ pubs would have been formally told a week ago about reopening on Monday.
‘But pubs are very resilient, if they were told tomorrow they could probably make it work but they shouldn’t have to be going through that,’ he said.
Stuart O’Neill, manager of The Wild Duck in Temple Bar, Dublin, said he was also waiting to hear what was going to happen.
‘How are people supposed to prepare? It’s not as easy as just turning the lights back on. We’ve been working for a number of weeks beforehand. Initially we thought it was August, then July, then June again,’ he said.
‘It takes a couple of weeks to get everything back up and running and cleaned from top to bottom. The bar hasn’t been as clean!’
Publican and TD, Danny HealyRae, said the uncertainty over the reopening of pubs is just ‘rural Ireland being hit once again’.
A number of TDs asked Taoiseach Micheál Martin to fasttrack the decision about pubs reopening and to release guidelines. Independent TD, Michael
McNamara said small businesses need to know when to order stock as the planned reopening is less than one week away.
‘You can’t tell them on Monday morning that they can open at 10 o’clock – they need to know in advance,’ he said.
‘When will the statutory instrument which will govern this be published?’
Christy Walsh, of the Well Bar in Listowel, Co. Kerry, said he was very disappointed the guidelines had not yet been published. He said the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, of which he is the Kerry representative, had signed off on draft guidelines three weeks ago, which had ‘sat in an office in the HSE’ ever since.
He said many pubs in the area would not have enough stock to reopen on Monday, having missed order dates.
And he said many questions remained unanswered, such as the safe use of toilets, whether people could come to the bar or would have to be served, and whether people could sit at the bar if a Perspex screen divided them from the staff.
‘Everything is now coming up so quick. We only have a few days left, and they are sitting on these guidelines. It’s very disappointing and very frustrating,’ he said.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn suggested it was ‘too early to say’ whether pubs will get the go-ahead to open on Monday.
Grogan’s pub in Dublin city centre announced on social media that it was postponing reopening for at least a week because of ‘one week from our proposed reopening, the operational guidelines are yet to be released’.
It added in its statement: ‘It is extremely disheartening to see how pubs have been treated in this regard. As a result, we’re sorry to announce we must postpone our reopening until July 27 at the earliest. Sorry, folks.’
Yesterday, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that a decision on moving to Phase 4, which allows for pubs, casinos and other entertainment businesses to reopen, will be made by Cabinet this evening, following advice from the NPHET.
Pubs have appealed for clarity as the NPHET meets to discuss the reopening of all pubs, as well
‘It is very unfair’
Looking for a VAT reduction
as how to limit the number of tourists travelling into the country.
Publicans are also looking for a reduction in VAT from 23% to 9% to cushion against the extra coronavirus protection costs and the expected drop in trade.
A spokesman for the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland, which represents publicans outside Dublin, said that the VAT reduction would help struggling businesses.
‘This is not designed to reduce the price of alcohol, it’s designed to support businesses who have to implement social distancing,’ he said.