The Government must introduce a ‘meaningful support package’ for pubs if they are not allowed to reopen from next week, according to the Licenced Vintners Association.

Cabinet is meeting today to decide whether Stage Four of the roadmap for reopening can go ahead as planned next Monday.

It comes amid the recent spike in COVID-19, with 182 further cases reported since Friday.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Donal O’Keeffe, CEO of the Licensed Vintners Association, said the uncertainty around reopening is “simply intolerable” for publicans and their staff.

“It is not acceptable to us, to the families involved in the pub trade, that every three weeks we have this huge material uncertainty running into days before any scheduled reopening,” he said.

“We don’t want to be back here in three weeks’ time asking will they, won’t they open the pubs. We want a longer-term decision.”

Meaningful support package

He said the Government must introduce a meaningful support package for the duration of the closure, if it decides to delay Phase Four once again.

“The businesses are closed 141 days today,” he said. “If it is extended for another three weeks, they will end up closed, at that stage, for 46% of the year.

“Now you tell me any business in any sector of the economy that can survive 46% of their trading year closed.

“Publicans have financial commitments around their business; they have their personal financial commitments; they have obligations to their staff and suppliers. All of those need to be factored into a compensation package to pay them for being closed on public health advice at the direction of the Government.”

Safe reopening

Mr O'Keefe said the pubs that have already opened with food service have shown that they can do so safely.

“For us, it is all around the guidelines,” he said. “It is either safe to open pubs or it is not. If it is safe, give us the guidelines and give us the opportunity to trade.

“Our members that are open are showing that they are able to follow the guidelines, that their customers follow and respect the guidelines. There have been no issues with the trade that is open. We see the Garda compliance report showing an exceptionally high level of compliance with the guidelines.

“We are simply saying for the wet pubs. We want guidelines. We want the opportunity to trade and we want that decision today.”

Pubs

He said pubs are well-equipped to stop people going on bar-crawls in a bid to beat the 105-minute time limit.

“That is a responsibility the trade will take very seriously,” he said.

“We manage alcohol consumption on the premises in normal times anyway. Experienced publicans are good at doing that and I have no doubt the vast majority of publicans in this country will take their responsibilities very seriously.

“We simply need to get open. We want the opportunity to trade. We understand it will not be business like normal and we believe the vast majority of publicans will follow whatever guidelines are put in place.”

You can listen back to the full interview here:

This article has been updated. Read more here