Trade fury as Irish government stalls wet pub re-opening in Dublin
Traditional pubs in the Dublin city area have had their fourth indicative date for re-opening following the Covid-19 lockdown rescinded following a surge in virus cases in the Irish capital in recent days.
News of the delay – the focus of fierce speculation – has been met with fury from the local trade. Representative body, the Licensed Vintners’ Association (LVA) has hit out at the Irish government, accusing it of ‘empty gestures’ and ‘hollow words’ and insisting that wet bars had played no part in Dublin’s rising levels of infection.
The decision was based on recommendations from the Republic’s National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). Traditional bars in the city had been set to re-open on Monday, September 21.
In the north, traditional pubs are still set to re-open their doors to customers on the 21st – the third indicative date given to the local trade by the NI Executive.
In Dublin, the LVA has issued a statement in which it recalls the Irish government’s commitment last week not to single out non-food pubs from other business:
‘Yet seven days later, the government has ignored that commitment and has set out separate treatment for non-food pubs in Dublin who must remain closed despite the capital being kept at level two in the government’s new medium-term strategy,’ said the Association.
‘The pubs who don’t serve food played no part in the rising level of infection in Dublin, yet pubs were the only business singled out in the ‘guidance’ provided by NPHET last week.’
Wet bars in Dublin were previously told that they could re-open to trade on July 20, August 10 and August 31.
Donall O’Keeffe, chief executive of the LVA has condemned this latest delay as ‘completely unfair and unjustified’.
‘It is an empty gesture that will make zero impact on reducing the level of infection we are currently experiencing in Dublin,’ he added. ‘An empty gesture backed by hollow words from a government that broke its commitment to non-food pubs again.
‘This ongoing singling out of wet pubs is now being institutionalised in the latest roadmap and is impossible for our members to understand or accept.’
Mr O’Keeffe accused the government of punishing pubs while taking no action against other businesses, such as meat plants, which, he claimed, had been responsible for driving infection.
‘Pubs are paying the price for the repeated shortfalls in the government’s capacity to handle this crisis,’ he added.
