Fáilte Ireland expects to publish hospitality industry guidelines within 24 hours

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Fáilte Ireland’s hospitality development manager, Tara Kerry has said that the agency expects to be in a position to publish guidelines within 24 hours for the hospitality industry once details have been clarified with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

Ms Kerry told RTÉ radio’s News at One that Fáilte Ireland is going through the guidelines today with the HPSC and among the clarifications they are seeking is if the two metre physical distance guidelines can be reduced to one metre and if the proposed time limit of 90 minutes can be extended to two hours.

Sources confirmed on Wednesday the guidelines also recommend customers pre-book visits and limit their length of stay in a pub or restaurant to a maximum of 90 minutes.

“We’re advocating for the two-hour minimum. We are having some very good discussions around these issues and we hope to have clarification on that this afternoon.”

Another issue on which they are seeking clarity is that of PPE. In a very small kitchen this could be a problem, she said. The industry wants to ensure that staff are kept safe and to do their best for their customers.

The proposed requirement that a pub provide “a substantial meal” costing at least €9 was “the law of the land” she said. The amount had been determined in 2003 when the legislation was last updated.

When asked who would police the new guidelines, Ms Kerry said Fáilte Ireland was seeking clarity on this, but she firmly believed that business owners would self-police and the public would honour the guidelines because they realised the importance of reopening the sector.

Ms Kerry pointed out that after July 20 all pubs will be allowed reopen.

She further explained that under the proposed guidelines if a person pre-booked their visit to the pub they would have to abide by a one metre physical distance, if they walked in, they would have to observe a two metre distance.

Earlier today, publican groups have called for

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The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) said that the drip-feed of information is creating more questions than answers.

Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the Restaurants Association welcomed the proposal that the two-metre distance be reduced to one metre which would be “a game changer” for the sector and provide “a lot of confidence” for businesses.

Extending the duration of a pub visit from 90minutes to two hours would be “a huge thing for us.” He called for the guidelines to be published as soon as possible so everyone could see them.

Mr Cummins repeated a call for a sector-specific package of €150million which would work out as an average of €33,000 per business. “This is needed very fast.” The cost of PPE for staff in a restaurant would cost €2,500 per month.

“It’s not all rosy in the garden for the industry. We need a sector-led package from the new government when it is formed.”