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Not serving customers at the bar is the price that innkeepers have to pay to be able to reopen, according to government plans.
Lobbyists in the country’s more than 3,000 pubs have warmly welcomed the 25-page plan, obtained by the , which reveal that so-called wet pubs will have to operate largely in the same vein as those that serve food.
The draft guidelines, which were drawn up together with Fáilte Ireland, were distributed to winegrowers groups yesterday and are in line with the guidelines for pubs serving food, which are now open. Government sources have made it clear that suggestions that the pubs will open in the middle of this month were “too optimistic.”
“We just saw the schools reopening. We have to allow that to settle in and see the impact on the numbers there first. A reopening is more likely in several weeks, ”said a government source.
- Publicans will be required to record the time and date of arrival of clients, and the name and telephone number of the lead person in the group for contact tracing purposes;
- Time slots limited to 1 hour and 45 minutes where a physical distance of 1 m can be maintained;
- The 105-minute time intervals are not a requirement when a physical distance of 2 m can be “strictly maintained”;
- Physical distancing is required between people from different households, but not between people from the same household;
- All pubs must close at 11.30pm;
- Groups must be limited to a maximum of six people from no more than three households;
- Employees working behind the bar must keep a distance of 2 m “as far as is reasonably possible”;
- When using the smoking areas, customers must remain seated.
With the exchange of these preliminary guidelines, the Government has entered a period of reflection and consultation with bar owners on how to make the rules workable and allow bars to open in a viable manner.
Meanwhile, the Government wants to eliminate the two-week quarantine for those who come from some foreign countries, but particularly from the United Kingdom.
Several government sources have pointed to the rapid Covid-19 testing service available at Heathrow Airport for passengers paying for the privilege.
“A lot of attention is paid to the Heathrow tests. If a viable model can be found, it would be a huge game changer, not just for travel within the EU, but especially between here and the UK, ”a government source said yesterday.
Questions have also been raised about the viability of the so-called green list given the increase in our transmission rate.
“When the green list was introduced, our transmission rate was much lower. The list operated by allowing countries with a similar or lower rate than ours to come here. But there is no way we can do that now, ”said the source.
Today, the government is releasing details of its € 2 billion Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme, the largest state-backed loan guarantee in Ireland.
Speaking about the plan, Leo Varadkar said: “The last few months have been extremely difficult for Irish companies. We have seen our small and medium-sized businesses work hard to adapt and continue to operate in the face of this profound disruption.
“The government is determined to help businesses as they operate in a fundamentally changed business environment.”
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