[ad_1]
One of the largest restaurant and pub groups in the state has taken legal action against the Government for the extension of the Covid-19 restrictions that close its facilities to the indoor dining room.
The Press Up Group, whose Dublin facilities include Elephant & Castle, Wagamama, The Clarence, Devlin and Dean hotels and The Stella cinema, says it could lose more than € 20 million in business by the end of the year due to the closures.
The hospitality business, controlled by businessman Paddy McKillen Jr, threatened legal action against the government last week if it decided to extend Covid-19 restrictions.
Level 3 restrictions, which limit pubs and open-air restaurants only, were introduced last month in Dublin, but rolled out across the country this week through October 27.
The group claims in newly filed legal documents, starting the case on Wednesday, that state bans on containing and eliminating coronavirus infections had been advanced based on “demands for the common good in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. “.
The business chain, which employs more than 1,700 people across the group, claims this amounts to a “subjugation” of their “constitutional and customary rights to the common good.”
He maintains that the State has not made any provision to compensate or indemnify him for the loss or interference in his property rights “in circumstances in which the requirement to close the premises to the public is a direct requirement of the alleged demands of the common good. “
It occupies 55 premises affected by the restrictions: 37 restaurants, 11 bars, five hotels and two cinemas, the majority in Dublin. The place is valued at more than 10 million euros, says the group.
The group says it has adhered to government health guidelines at all times since the pandemic started in March and that it has not been notified of any Covid-19 outbreaks.
Legal proceedings have been initiated by 18 companies of the group against the Ministers of Health and Finance, the State and the Attorney General’s Office, who have not yet responded.
The group said it has incurred “very significant losses” due to the closure of facilities, including loss of revenue and profits, well in excess of € 1 million.
Matt Ryan, one of the group’s directors, says in an affidavit filed with High Court proceedings that the group has had to cut the number of employees by almost half to 938 since the Level 3 restrictions were introduced in Dublin. on September 19.
In the week after the restrictions were introduced, Ryan said the group’s turnover had declined on a like-for-like basis by nearly € 1.4 million, or more than 70 percent.
“If the current blockage continues until the end of the year, and based on the turnover achieved in week 39, the group’s turnover in comparable terms would decrease by € 20,731,695, or 72%. The loss claimed as a result of the enactments will exceed 20 million euros, ”he said.
The group had to reduce its workforce from 1,719 to 159 after the initial shutdown in March 2020, but with the reuse and reopening of certain places for takeout and delivery, the group was able to increase the number of employees to 1,437.
“Since then, it has been reduced to 938 following the introduction of the regulation on September 19 and the restrictions imposed on [GROUP’S]local, ”said Mr. Ryan.
The business group has requested that the process for their admission to the Commercial Court, a division of the Superior Court that hears expedited cases, be accelerated.
[ad_2]