Covid-19 in Ireland, Pub bosses reeling as they remain in dark over opening next week as Covid cases

Ronan, behind bar of The Swan, wants the Government to get in touch with owners of hard-hit boozers

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Tomorrow is D Day for the boozer industry which has been decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic as the Cabinet meets to decide if bars who don’t serve food will be allowed to let punters in on August 10. But doubt has begun to creep back in as Acting Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn has become more cautious and last night 53 new cases were confirmed. The public health head honcho said the rise in infections was clearly concerning with an average of 47 cases per day over the past five days, the highest in weeks.

It has been mooted that bars may be only able to serve under limited circumstances with indications that a capacity limit may be enforced. It is understood that this may help keep so called super pubs which are of concern to health experts from reopening. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly would not be drawn yesterday on what decision will be made on boozers, saying the National Public Health Emergency Team’s advice will be central to the Cabinet’s decision.

But Ronan Lynch, who owns The Swan on the corner of Aungier Street and York Street in central Dublin, last night hit out at the Government over the lack of clarity publicans have been given.

He said, It’s very frustrating for everybody 55 per cent of the pubs have been closed for 40 per cent of the year. We have got the odd support here. But it’s nothing that’s done anything in addressing the cost of running the business and we’re still a week to go and have no guidelines or paths to reopening. People are incredibly frustrated and upset. It’s very demoralising for publicans, staff, families and suppliers. There’s no direction. It’s been very disrespectful for the industry that has done a huge amount.

At least 2,450 jobs have been lost in the capital’s pub sector since bars were told to close their doors in March, according to figures from the Licensed Vintners Association. Asked how much of a blow it would be if the reopening date was pushed back again, Ronan said, It’s a knockout blow. There’s gonna be mass closures.

Minister Donnelly said, I don’t want to prejudge what NPHET may decide. Certainly the number one focus is getting the schools reopened. Obviously it’s protecting public health on a day to day basis, but we’re focused at getting the schools reopening.

He pointed out that both this and the last Government has followed their advice about whether it was acceptable to move forward a phase. The push to get schools back to business will come at pubs expense, Donnelly told RTE Radio One’s This Week, It is certainly the case that decisions could be made if NPHET deem them necessary in order to keep the opening of schools on track.

The Fianna Fail TD said he and others have been approached by publicans to ask the fair question as to why they have been singled out while other sectors have reopened.

He said, The international experience shows that when the pubs reopen, the number of new cases goes up. So what (public health doctors) found was, that doesn’t seem to be the case with restaurants, which is why they advised restaurants could open albeit with the restrictions in place. So the public health officials are concerned with what has happened in other countries. But the publicans are in a very, very difficult position, and I have huge sympathy with them and the Government has huge sympathy with them.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said last week that he would like to see the industry reopen, but again could not make any commitments. And Sinn Fein health spokesman David Cullinane yesterday raised the idea of pubs reopening under the same situation as restaurants and said it should be looked at. The Swan chief Ronan wants the Government to engage with people in his industry, who have yet to be given any guidelines for Phase 4 of the reopening of the country.

He reckons those who have opened already, serving food, have proved that they are up for the job. Mr Lynch said: The thing is if they really want to talk about stuff, they need to sit down and talk with people from the industry and say to them: ‘What can we do?. Let’s take things at face value here, in Phase 3, we have shown we can operate controlled environments, we have shown that customers buy in, the staff buy in the guidelines have been adhered to. The Gardai have enforced it and said there was widespread compliance. We’ve done it, we’ve shown we can do it and still it’s not good enough.

And on the capacity issue, he said, You have to remember we’re employers here I’m not gonna put my staff in danger. It’s not in our interest to have 60 or 70 per cent of the pub full. 50 per cent is your limit and you adhere to that because customers will walk out if the pubs are too packed.

Reports of rural pubs getting the green light ahead of others is unlikely with it being seen as nearly impossible to enforce legally.

Mr Lynch believes it would be unjust to even consider, adding, It’s really unfair to the pubs of Dublin saying you can drive 20 miles outside and go to pubs in Meath or Kildare or Wicklow and go have a pint it’s grossly unfair. Personally I think it’s not workable, it doesn’t stack up.

Meanwhile, Minister Donnelly said that while recent cases have been concerning, he also pointed to some positive news.

He said, In the last 14 days we have approximately 400 live cases, the vast majority of those, we know where they are. About 80 of these are from community transmission. What we’re watching very carefully is exactly that spread. The good news is the number of people being hospitalised is very low so we have less than ten people in hospital and four of those are in ICU.