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.