‘Draconian to keep our shop shut’
RESTRICTIONS keeping shopping centre stores closed, while other retailers can open their doors from Monday, have been described as ‘draconian’.
The country is to move into Phase Two of the Government’s reopening plan next week, which will allow some retailers to reopen. However, stores in shopping centres, aside from essentials such as supermarkets, food shops and pharmacies, are to remain closed until Phase Five in August.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Declan Byrne of Penthouse Menswear, which recently went online, said it has been almost three weeks since the implementation of Phase One and that there has hasn’t been a spike in cases. ‘Cases have gone down every day. So people are still abiding by it and they are out shopping,’ the businessman said. Mr Byrne runs the Dublin business with his brother Paul and they have two stores – in the Liffey Valley and Jervis Street shopping centres.
‘It is because we are in a shopping centre that we are not allowed open. We all understand what is going on [but] if I had a shop on Henry Street, I can open on Monday,’ he explained. ‘There is one fella we know that has about 40 shops around the whole country and he is opening all his stores on Monday because he is not in shopping centres.
‘How can you control Henry Street and Grafton Street with people walking up and down? We’ve more chance of controlling people walking around a shopping centre… Centres are air-conditioned, they are wide. Centres can put systems in place.
‘It’s a bit draconian, the measures, and I think they are going over the top on it.’
He added that by being closed over the last few months, his business has already lost out on some of its busiest months.
‘We’re 12 weeks closed this weekend. January, February and March are not busy months,’ Mr Byrne said.
‘April comes along and suddenly it is Communion season and Confirmation season,’ he added, expressing frustration that they’ve missed out on eight weeks of serious business. ‘The rest of Europe is opening and the UK, which has a worse situation than we have, is reopening,’ he said.
Mr Byrne, who has been writing to TDs to raise his concerns, said his business has also been making preparations in its stores, including the installation of screens, floor markings and hand sanitisers.