Exclusion of indoor dining creates 'divide' in hospitality sector

The Restaurants of Association of Ireland said it was 'deeply concerned' that hotels and guesthouses were permitted to reopen indoor dining prior to independent restaurants. File picture

The roadmap for reopening the hospitality sector has been broadly welcomed, but the rules around indoor and outdoor dining have “caused a divide” within the sector, representatives have said.

On Thursday, the Government announced hotels, B&Bs and guesthouses could reopen from June 2, outdoor hospitality could resume from June 7, with widespread indoor dining resuming at a later, unspecified date.

Representative groups within the sector largely described the plans as positive, however, the Restaurants of Association of Ireland (RAI) said it was “deeply concerned” that hotels and guesthouses were permitted to reopen indoor dining prior to independent restaurants.

Dividing the two dining types into separate categories is an “anti-competitive, inequitable decision and without medical, scientific or public health rationale”, the RAI said in a statement.

Michael O’Donovan, chairman of the Cork branch of the Vintners’ Federation, said the outdoor hospitality news is good for businesses with beer gardens. File picture

Michael O’Donovan, chairman of the Cork branch of the Vintners’ Federation, said the outdoors news is good for businesses with beer gardens. However, he hopes the continued closure of indoor pubs will only be “a short-term” thing.

Mr O’Donovan also welcomed the scrapping of the necessity of a €9 substantial meal, which he said caused issues last year and seemed to have “no scientific basis”.

Sandra Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Trigon hotel group, which includes the Metropole, Cork International Hotel and Cork Airport Hotel, said they were feeling “excited, excited, excited”.

“We have two hotels in Cork that are open at the moment for essential service, but we are very much looking forward to opening properly where we can welcome the tourism market,” she said.

Some 70% of business for Irish tourism companies comes from international visitors, but Ms Murphy believes there will be pent-up demand from people around the country who will want a getaway.

Derek Binchy, managing director of Fota Island Adventure centre in Cork, said the focus on the outdoors this summer would be a great boost for adventure tourism businesses.

There is already a demand for the upcoming season, he said.

“We opened bookings for the camps a few weeks ago to our existing customer base and 52% of the spaces were booked up immediately. I’ve a host of schools ready to go in [for school tours] in their pods of 15,” he added.

Meanwhile, music promoter Shane Dunne said he understands the live events industry will be the last to reopen, but he said the Government needed to publish plans to show how the sector could reopen safely.