BEER WE GO
Pubs use restaurant licensing loophole to beat restrictions and open a month early..
DEFIANT publicans are plotting to open their doors on June 29 – six weeks ahead of schedule.
Many boozers that have restaurant licences are hoping to get back in business on the earlier date, sources in the bar trade told the Irish Mirror.
Yesterday leading publican Charlie Chawke declared he would open his bars when eateries get the green light to exit lockdown.
He said his flagship Goat pub in South Dublin would be serving pizza and pints outdoors on June 29.
Mr Chawke, who owns a chain of nine watering holes, said: “I will be complying with the regulations. I am a restaurant owner, I have restaurant
licences, and this gives me the right to open as a restaurant.”
Meanwhile, Dublin’s licensing court is to face a “rush” of applications for pubs to open as restaurants.
Under the Government’s roadmap to lifting Covid 19 restrictions restaurants and cafes can open in phase three, from June 29, but pubs, bars, nightclubs, and casinos have to keep their doors closed until phase five begins on August 10. The plan states this affects venues where social distancing and strict cleaning can be complied with.
Yesterday an application was made by the operators of the Two Sisters pub in Rathfarnham in Dublin to be certified as a restaurant.
There are believed to be several hundred pubs across the country that have restaurants as well as bar licences.
In Dublin alone around 400 boozers have both licences.
Pub chiefs are furious the Government has refused to meet them to discuss their objections to being forced to wait six weeks longer than restaurants to re-open.
Yesterday Leo Varadkar admitted one of the things he was most looking forward to was going for a pint.
However, he said he could not see pubs
being allowed to move forward in the roadmap to re-open the country.
The Taoiseach told Today FM: “The key for us is if it’s possible to open a business and maintain good hygiene and social distancing. The truth is that in a pub it is very difficult.
“Pubs had to close before they were told to close because they weren’t able to maintain social distancing in a number of cases and the difficulty then for the publicans – and I really feel for them – is if they do maintain the two metre rule, they might be able to open – but would they be viable?
“It is something we’re determined to work through with them, but as things stand, we won’t see pubs, nightclubs, entertainment venues open until mid-august.”
Yesterday, Brian Devitt of the Two Sisters told Dublin District’s licensing court his family-run business had 28 to 30 staff who are unable to work.
Niki Andrews for the Village Inn on Main Street, Celbridge, Co Kildare, said that pub was also making an application for a restaurant certificate.
The court also noted there was no Garda objection to either pubs’ application and Judge Coghlan agreed to certify them as restaurants.