*pictured: a section of the outdoor dining area at Nora Culligans
UP TO 50 per cent of pubs in Clare have been unable to reopen following the latest delay in easing restrictions for indoor dining and drinking.
Clare publicans have argued that NPHET have decided the hospitality sector “no longer deserve to exist” and that the Government are “quite happy to go along with it”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Charlie O’Meara of Moroney’s Bar and Chair of the Clare branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), said that the hospitality industry as a whole continues to be treated with no sympathy or respect by the Government who he claims have “no idea of how the business operates”.
“Unfortunately there are no plans for the hospitality sector and that’s our biggest worry at the moment,” he said. “There isn’t actually a reopening date for July so once again there’s been no clarification from Government, and like so many dates that came and passed for the pub industry and hospitality sector as a whole, nothing has moved on as far as we can see. There’s nothing to give us any hope.”
Charlie ruled out the idea of vaccinated-only customers being admitted to indoor serving and called the suggestion a “smokescreen”.
“It’s been absolutely terrible what the Government has done. They’ve shown absolutely no sympathy and no respect whatsoever. The way they’ve been treated, everything has been last minute, it seems NPHET has decided the hospitality industry no longer deserves to exist and the Government seems to be quite happy to go along with it.”
Siobhan O’Keeffe, of Nora Culligan’s Bar on Abbey Street in Ennis, claimed the delay in reopening of indoor dining was “discriminatory”. “We are very disappointed in the government’s announcement postponing the re-opening of indoor hospitality. While we are thankful to be able to operate an outdoor area it has left us completely dependent on the weather and with no certainty going forward about when we will actually re-open indoors. We are also extremely disappointed for our colleagues in the pub & Restaurant trade who are not in a position to operate an outdoor area- they are in total limbo again and that is very hard to take.
“While we will have to await further details on the governments proposal to only allow vaccinated people to dine or drink indoors on the face of it we feel it is unfair, discriminatory and don’t see how it will work. We also feel it places an unfair burden on an industry and its staff that are already under pressure.”
“We are trying to stay positive now that we are open, albeit for outdoors only. But the reality of the situation is that we are operating at a significantly reduced capacity and require additional staffing resources to do that. But we are open and I have to say that customers and staff have been very loyal and supportive since we re-opened outdoors and we are very grateful for that support. We are also fully committed to continuing to follow the operating guidelines to ensure the safety of our customers and staff.”
For the publicans themselves, the emotional toll both physically and mentally has been “absolutely terrible”. Charlie also lamented the fact that the longer his industry is left out in the cold, the more complex staffing issues will become.
“The Government seems to have on idea of how the business operates. We’re hemoraging staff like there’s no tomorrow. You can’t expect staff to wait around while you reopen your business. Most of them have gone out looking for other work so if we finally do get to reopen, God knows when, will there even be enough staff to man these places? At the moment, the industry is struggling to find staff and the longer this goes on the harder that will be.”
He explained that the number of false dawns is continuing to take a fiscal and emotional toll. “We all got caught so many times and the amount of stock that has been dumped in the last 12 months between opening and closing has been unreal.” Without intervention from the VFI and other hospitality representatives, Charlie believes that thousands of euro worth of stock would have been dumped.
“It’s going to be very hard for a lot of businesses to survive without any clarity on when this is going to all end,” he added.
