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A gym in West Dublin will open as normal Thursday morning despite Level 5 restrictions requiring it to close.
Simon Murphy, owner of the Westside gym in Blanchardstown, said the gym will open only to existing members and that the response from members has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Under the government’s Level 5 restrictions, which take effect for six weeks starting at midnight Wednesday, gyms, leisure centers and swimming pools must close.
Murphy said he decided to keep the gym open after listening to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s speech on Monday night and after receiving positive feedback on the suggestion on social media to stay open in recent weeks.
The gym currently has between 1,200 and 1,300 members, with 50 people allowed at any one time.
“The statistics are there to show how small the broadcast has been in the gyms,” Murphy told The Irish Times.
“I believe that I can provide the safest environment possible for people to train and I believe that this is an essential part of my members’ lives and that is what I am here to serve.
A confirmed case
Murphy said there has been a confirmed case of Covid-19 among its members and that a training partner was contacted as a possible close contact who subsequently tested negative for the virus.
“This is for existing members only, we do not accept new members. It is not an exercise to earn money. It’s about being sustainable for people’s mental health and also about maintaining our business, ”he added.
Murphy said the staff was also happy to continue working despite the restrictions.
“I explained to him that anyone who was not comfortable with the stance he was going to take, their work would still be there waiting for them when we are allowed to reopen and hopefully go back to stage 3 or whatever the situation is,” he said. He said.
“But none of them had any objections or concerns about going ahead and taking the position that we have and we have been fully supportive.”
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