Publicans warn 2,000 jobs at risk as they protest at offices of Simon Coveney and Michael McGrath
2,000 jobs will go if the pub sector remains closed, publicans said. Cork Vintner’s protest over pub closures to Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney’s offices in Carrigaline, Co. Cork. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
Publicans who serve alcohol only have pleaded with the Government for clearance to reopen their bars and for a chance to prove they can run them in line with public health guidelines.
Dozens of members of the Cork branch of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI), who run so-called ‘wet pubs’, staged simultaneous protests at the constituency offices of senior Cabinet members, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, and Public Expenditure Minister, Michael McGrath, in Carrigaline, Co. Cork, this morning to highlight their plight.
They said the publication over the weekend of draft guidelines to facilitate a possible reopening of the sector is no good without a reopening date and they warned that up to 2,000 jobs are at risk if the sector remains closed.
“As a group, we are at breaking point and a resolution where pubs can reopen must be found in a matter of days,” VFI Cork branch chairman Michael O’Donovan said.
The publicans said they supported the closure of pubs last March at a time when little was known about social distancing or about the impact of the virus.
Mr O’Donovan said, thankfully, the lockdown helped bring the virus under control to a point where the hospitality sector was allowed to reopen under strict guidelines.
But, he said, the so-called 'wet pubs' were omitted from this process - a decision he described as “foolhardy”.
“The so-called support offered to our sector falls woefully short of what is required to save our businesses,” he said.
“We have been forced to close for such a lengthy duration, the 40% top-up of the business restart grant equates to about €64 per week for publicans in license band A who have been shut for 25 weeks.
“Does the government really believe that this will help us restart our businesses?” Publicans pointed out that Ireland is the only country in Europe where the pubs remain shut.
“Indeed evidence has emerged from other European countries and the UK that pubs can successfully open as society learns to live alongside the virus,” Mr O’Donovan said.
“Our message is simple - allow us to open under social distancing guidelines so we can prove our businesses are responsibly run with the health of our staff and our customers the number one priority.
Rodney Pidgeon, whose family runs The Baker St in Gurranabraher on the northside of Cork city, said his income, and that of his wife and son, has been taken away completely.
“We didn’t think it was going to go on as long as it has done and we had hoped the longer it went on we would’ve got more support. Hopefully, something will be done to make our lives a little bit easier,” he said.
“You can see some of our regulars walking by, asking ‘when are we going to open?’ and we can’t answer that.
“If we haven’t been allowed open by Christmas then we will have to sit down and have a very good look at it and see where it’s going to go from there.”
His bar manager, Noel Maguire, said he understands the concerns of public health experts about mixing alcohol and social distancing requirements.
“But we are well able to manage that. This is what we do for a living. They seem to think that because alcohol is involved, that everybody goes mad. We have been managing people with alcohol for all our life so that’s not a bother - just let us open,” he said.
Mr Coveney, who spoke to the group outside his office, paid tribute to those who work in the sector.
“This has been an incredibly frustrating summer for them, and more than that, it has been hugely costly financially as well,” he said.
“The publicans here today just want to reopen. They want to do it in a responsible way. They want to protect their customers and they want to comply with public health guidelines.
“What we are trying to do in government is to try to listen to public health doctors that are giving us advice, as we always do in relation to every decision on Covid-19, while at the same time try to find a way of allowing pubs to reopen, to ensure that the many, many thousands of viable businesses across the country are allowed to function and to provide a service to their customers.”
But he said he can’t give them an opening date yet.
Thank you to Minister @simoncoveney for coming out to talk to the Publicans of Cork this morning but still more questions than answers @VFIpubs @CorkVFI pic.twitter.com/MfxxKFv4bu
— Michael O'Donovan (@michaelodono99) September 7, 2020
He said Government will publish its medium-term ‘Living with Covid-19’ strategy next Monday and the reopening of pubs will be part of that.
“There isn’t any politician that wants to keep pubs closed. At the moment, we are engaging with NPHET to try to put a plan in place that can facilitate the opening of businesses while at the same time protecting public health and that always has to be the balance of government,” he said.
“We are not in government to make popular decisions at the moment. We are in government to protect the public, particularly vulnerable members of the public.”
Publicans said they will stage similar protests again next week unless there is significant progress.
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