House parties causing Covid rise and not pubs
PAUL Moynihan feels pubs are being unfairly targeted by Covid restrictions, whilst other industries seem to be allowed operate close to normality.
Paul runs and owns Moynihan’s of Donard, having only reopened on September 21 after six months of forced closure.
The Cabinet has signed off on new Covid-19 restrictions which will only allow pubs and restaurants provide outdoor dining and takeaway service for the next three weeks.
Pubs that do not serve food will be allowed to open but they will only be able to provide outdoor service to a maximum of 15 people. ‘I’m very disappointed,’ admitted Paul. ‘It’s destabilising for the whole industry. Also our pub acts as an important meeting place in the village. We had a few customers in last night and they were hugely disappointed.
‘Isolation is a huge problem in rural areas and our pub reopening in September allowed people to get out of their homes.
‘Confidence was beginning to rebuild again and people were becoming more open to the idea of returning to the pub. We had a good system in place, which our customers seemed happy enough with. This is definitely another blow.’
He also retains doubts whether pubs will even be allowed reopen properly once the three week period of Level 3 restrictions have passed.
‘I wouldn’t be too confident. The three weeks runs into the long weekend and I think they might try and extend things to cover that weekend.’
Paul further believes that house parties are one of the major contributors to rising Covid cases, and has called on proper enforcement to crackdown on such gatherings.
‘House parties are the big problem. Pubs in Dublin have been closed for the past few weeds, yet the cases of Covid are increasing. House parties and the availability of cheap alcohol are exacerbating the problem. Level 3 effectively closes pubs down. We need to get a handle on all these house parties in order for us to be able to move forward as a society.
‘ The enforcement measures are there and should be acted upon. If you know of a house party going on then you should ring the Gardai. Don’t just turn a blind eye. 5 per cent are affecting the 95 per cent and bringing them down with us.’
Paul is still planning to provide an outdoor service so as to offer the local community some form of social interaction, even if it will be greatly curbed by the new restrictions.
‘We are looking at our outdoor space to see what we can do with it. We are going to try and install outside heaters. It’s important the local community has somewhere open where they can go.’