Restaurateurs fume at talk of extra week wait for reopening
RESTAURANTS may be forced to wait another week to reopen under plans being discussed by Government.
While retail, gyms and hairdressers are expected to reopen on December 1, there is talk of delaying the reopening of restaurants by a week.
However, wet pubs are expected to remain shut over Christmas.
The news on the possibility of a delay to the reopening of eateries was met with anger in the sector l ast night, with Restaurant Association of Ireland claiming it would actually be less safe to cram Christmas bookings i nto a tighter timeframe.
As a further 252 new cases of Covi d - 1 9 wer e announced yesterday, health chiefs warned people not to get complacent about Covid guidelines as a survey reveals more than a quarter of us believe the worst of the pandemic is behind us.
Research by the Department of Health shows 28% believe we’re over the worst of the pandemic, rising from 11% back in July.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that this fall in l evels of concern may be the reason behind people dropping their guard on occasion.
‘It’s not that we want people to be worried. But we think there’s a correlation between people’s level of concern, worry, and ultimately the behaviours that people exhibit,’ Dr Holohan said.
‘It can lead us, as we say, to each of us individually from time to time
‘I wish they’d make up their minds’
[to] drop our guard in ways that we might didn’t intend to do.’
The Government i s due to announce the phased exiting of lockdown restrictions by the end of this week.
The Cabinet will meet today to discuss the strategy which will see an initial return to Level 3, with some additional measures, next Tuesday, December 1.
It is expected that a formal announcement on the phased reopening will be made on Thursday, or Friday at the very latest. The Cabinet will meet for a second time this week on Friday also.
Plans being drafted by NPHET for a number of weeks will mean retailers get to open, likely with extended opening hours, to distribute shoppers over a greater period of time.
Gyms, hotels, hairdressers and beauticians will all be able to open their doors again from next week.
However, restaurants and gastropubs may have to wait an extra week before they can open.
Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurant Association of Ireland, said he was taken aback by this news and said it made no sense.
He said that people who want to go to a restaurant for Christmas now have less time to do so, making it less safe. ‘It pushes all of your bookings into the second and third week and puts pressure on the consumer,’ he said. ‘This should be about spreading capacity in restaurants. They should allow us to open safely and we can do it in a safe and controlled way.
‘I wish they would make up their minds to allow us to reopen because every day they prohibit us, it puts huge financial pressure on the industry when we need that cash flow to see us into the new year.’
The leaders of the three Government parties – Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan – met last night to discuss the easing of restrictions. NPHET will meet tomorrow and provide a recommendation to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly that night. The group usually meets on a Thursday but has had their meeting moved forward in advance of the reopening announcement. However, last night Dr Holohan warned that the loosening of r estrictions could see daily case numbers s oar when t hey are already averaging 200-300 a day. He warned: ‘The combination of the reproductive number and the absolute number of cases at a particular poi n t in t i me is important. ‘In a situation where the total number of cases on a daily basis is low, the change in t he r eproductive number doesn’t have a great effect f or a period of time but if the number of cases is as high as it is at the moment, [ there i s] a small i ncrease in reproduction number quite quickly which creates a challenge for us.’
The Mail understands that restrictions will be eased even further during Christmas week.
This will include allowing travel between counties, which is not permitted during Level 3. The
Government has yet to indicate whether it will be advising Irish expats to r eturn home f or Christmas or not.
Discussions are also ongoing about how t o accommodate worshippers at churches during the Christmas period. Speaking at
Dublin Port yesterday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said that the decision around reopening the country will be made by Government, not NPHET.
‘NPHET will obviously give its advice, but Government will decide how we exit Level 5,’ he said. ‘That will be a decision of Government that will be taken this week, either Thursday or Friday.’
Mr Martin declined to give details of which businesses will be allowed to reopen, but a move to Level 3 restrictions has been mooted.
However, despite the high case numbers i n recent weeks, he praised the progress made by Ireland i n the battle against the virus, and said the restrictions introduced to date ‘have worked’.
‘The Government will decide’