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Tighter coronavirus restrictions and a ban on indoor dining in Dublin will lead to an “economic crisis” for the restaurant and hospitality sector, the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI) has said.
The government has placed Dublin at Level 3 of its five-scale set of restrictions, in an effort to combat increases related to Covid-19 cases in the capital.
On Friday, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) confirmed 253 more cases of coronavirus and three more deaths. Of these cases, 116 are in Dublin.
On Friday, the Cabinet approved further recommendations from NPHET to allow only Dublin restaurants and pubs serving food in open spaces for al fresco dining or take-out services. Outdoor meals will be limited to a maximum of 15 people.
The measures will take effect at midnight on Friday and will remain in effect for at least three weeks.
In announcing the restrictions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the decision to ban indoor meals was made to limit the number of places where people congregate.
While the increase in cases was linked to outbreaks in private homes, “the initial infection is occurring outside the home and in the community,” he said.
The decision “was not a reflection of the business owners who have done everything that was asked of them,” he said.
RAI Executive Director Adrian Cummins said Dublin’s indoor eating ban would leave 50,000 jobs “at stake this weekend.”
“Today’s announcement from the Government will cause an economic collapse for the restaurant and hospitality sector in Dublin,” he said.
The restaurants have been open since late June and have implemented all the required public health guidelines, such as table spacing and hygiene measures, Cummins said. This protected staff and customers, “while maintaining its business and reacting to the current economic turmoil,” he said.
Since the government launched its five-tier Living with Covid-19 plan earlier this week, there has been “absolutely no engagement” with the sector, he said.
“The government should implement an emergency support package for restaurants, cafes and hospitality businesses in Dublin with immediate effect,” said Cummins.
The restaurant lobby group was seeking an emergency meeting with Martin and Tánaiste and the Minister of Business, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, said.
“Anger and frustration are palpable in our industry today and as the representative body of a sector that is the first, the worst and the most affected by Covid-19, we need a constructive daily dialogue with the government in the future to make sure we get out of this blockage as quickly as possible, ”Cummins said.
“Public health is and always will be focus number one. The economy must also be a key focus, companies are on the edge of the precipice and this imposed blockade will close many permanently, “he said.
Pubs
The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), which represents Dublin’s pubs, said the new restrictions amounted to the government “handing over control of the country to NPHET.”
The decision affects pubs that had been allowed to reopen at the end of June, as they could operate as restaurants and serve food. The government had previously announced that pubs serving only drinks could not reopen in Dublin this month.
Donall O’Keeffe, executive director of the LVA, said that “it is quite clear now that the government has little to say about how this country is being run and we are now being governed by NPHET.”
“They are closing swaths of businesses in Dublin, putting thousands of people out of work, and yet NPHET admits they have no data to show where infections are emerging in Ireland,” he said.
“Despite the lack of data, the government has empowered them to impose whatever guidelines they want without question,” O’Keeffe said.
The government had imposed “the most severe, draconian and punitive restrictions on the hospitality sector in all of Europe,” he said.
Patricia Callan, director of Drinks Ireland, which represents alcoholic beverage providers, said “the government must stop unfairly attacking an entire industry that is already on its knees, treating the sector as a political scapegoat.”
The beverage maker group said the decision to eat indoors and a refusal to allow drinks-only pubs to reopen would be the “final blow” for many companies already struggling to stay afloat.
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