Hazel Chu says outdoor hotspots should be made safe, not shut down
‘THERE isn’t going to be some Eureka moment, like you turn a light on on June 7 and everything is OK again,’ says Daniel Smith.
Mr Smith, of Grogan’s pub in Dublin city centre, surveyed a stack of tables he bought this week to accommodate the ‘outside drinking only’ rules as bars and restaurants prepare for the start of the great summer outdoors.
Outside the rain is torrential and a gale is blowing and even with the green light from Government, it’s hard to see anyone serving a pint in this weather.
‘When we open, it’s going to be just shy of 15 months that we’ve been closed,’ says Mr Smith in the famous pub that was opened by his grandfather. ‘It’s going to take us months or even years to build back to where we were.
‘Obviously we’re operating with a lot of constraints. We need the Government to keep giving support and we need the council to give us leeway as we get used to the outdoor thing.’
Mr Smith will be putting out tables and chairs to accommodate between 50 and 70 people depending on eagerly awaited Fáilte Ireland guidelines.
Customers will be allowed to use the toilets, but they will have to wear a mask when they come indoors.
In response to the loss of trade suffered by the hospitality industry, Dublin City Council has announced it will waive all charges for outdoor seating permits unit 2023.
The council is also allowing restaurants, cafés and pubs that didn’t previously serve food outside to hold a permit, as long as they meet key conditions including facilitating access to pedestrians and other road users. ‘We are prepared to consider proposals from restaurants and pubs who are rates-compliant, for greater use of the public realm to compensate for the impact of social distancing on their businesses,’ a council spokesman told the Irish Mail on Sunday. However, the council’s decision to close Portobello Plaza for the next three weekends because of outdoor drinking there has been criticised in several quarters – including by Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu.
Calling for a more cooperative approach, Ms Chu said the council needs to liaise more closely with pubs and restaurateurs to make sure the summer ‘works for everyone’.
The Green Party chairwoman told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I think it’s unacceptable to just close off public spaces and ban people from places like what’s happened in Portobello. I don’t think that’s the answer. You need to encourage people to behave well. The council needs to be proactive about how outdoor hospitality is managed this summer.’
Speaking to a Zoom meeting of 1,200 publicans recently, Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister Leo Varadkar said he was ‘very much’ encouraging local authorities to make the most of outdoor spaces to allow bars and restaurants to trade safely from June 7.
‘This is a good opportunity to reimagine our streets and have it used for the public for outdoor dining and outdoor drinking and not so much for cars,’ Mr Varadkar said.
‘Obviously, councils will want to give priority to pedestrians, cyclists, buggies etc. That has to be worked out at a local level.’
Galway City Council has also announced it will waive outdoor street furniture charges this year. Cork City Council, which led the way last year with its comprehensive outdoor hospitality plan, has promised pubs and restaurants it will review the amount of outdoor space they can operate in.
The Tánaiste indicated this week that plans are in place to extend the outdoor furniture grant to bars.
‘Because a lot of pubs, particularly around the country, do have their own outdoor space and that outdoor space is part of their licence, we want them to be able to use that,’ he said.
‘You need to encourage people to behave well’