More toilets, bins and benches needed to facilitate outdoor culture

Crowds at a sunny Youghal beach: UCD academic said clear public health advice is needed to help people make safer decisions as the country emerges from lockdown and providing more public conveniences, bins and benches would also help. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Eating and meeting outdoors is lower risk but more public conveniences, bins, and benches are needed if Ireland is to embrace the outdoors this summer, according to a UCD academic.

Assistant professor of architecture, planning and environmental policy Orla Hegarty said meeting and eating outdoors was not without risk: “Outdoor is not no risk – it’s low risk. It’s still the same risk if you’re up close with people and in close conversation.

“Where people are meeting they need to be careful. If in close conversation, they need to wear a mask outdoors. If they are at a distance, they are probably low risk without a mask,” she added.

The UCD academic said clear public health advice is needed to help people make safer decisions as the country emerges from lockdown and providing more public conveniences, bins and benches would also help.

“We need to give people a very clear message about how it is spread so that they can make safer decisions. People have started to make safe decisions by meeting outdoors so we need to support that,” she said.

We should be putting bins and benches and public toilets everywhere. That would be low cost compared to the toll being taken on everyone."

Food outlets also need clear guidance to prepare for a return to trading, both outdoors and indoors, she said: “It needs really clear information for people running restaurants to protect their staff and customers”.

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Indoor dining and gyms were among the riskier indoor environments, she said, adding that businesses could "future-proof" themselves by investing in better ventilation or air conditioning.

Meanwhile, chef and restaurateur JP McMahon called for greater clarity on whether food outlets could provide outdoor seating for takeaway customers.

Inconsistent approach

The owner of three eateries in Galway city expressed his frustrations over the grey area and inconsistent approach being adopted by gardaí, with some businesses being told to remove outdoor tables and chairs while others were not.

“We can’t wait for outside dining to begin at the end of May when half of the country seems to be ignoring the law and there doesn’t seem to be any clarity. I think the Government need to respond and clarify the issue,” he said.

Outdoor dining, he said, was “not a solution” for all restaurants and cafes and could lead to a two-tier system. The hospitality sector, he added, needed eight weeks' notice to prepare for a return to indoor dining this summer.

“Hospitality is going to have a very difficult winter. We’re hoping for a kind of honeymoon period of indoor dining in July and August but after that, I think the winter will make or break a lot of places,” Mr McMahon said.