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WETHERSPOONS HAS SAID it will spend an initial £11 million making its 875 pubs in the UK and Ireland Covid-19 secure ahead of reopening, including screens at bars and tables.
The chain said each pub will hire two full-time workers to regularly clean surfaces and touch points throughout, with more employed in larger pubs.
Laying out the future plans for bringing customers back through its doors, bosses added all staff will be provided with gloves, masks and protective eyewear for those who want to wear it.
The pub chain operates seven bars in Ireland, with five in Dublin and one each in Carlow and Cork.
In Ireland, all pubs have been shut since 15 March. Under the government’s roadmap to reopening, the guidelines are that they shouldn’t re-open until Phase Five on 10 August at the earliest.
Vintners, however, have argued that pubs should be permitted to open earlier and this week said a survey of Dublin pubs found four in 10 are planning to re-open as restaurants in June.
Whenever they re-open, pubs are certain to look very different to how they did before the pandemic – with strict physical distancing in place and no sitting, standing or drinking at the bar allowed.
On Wetherspoon’s plans, the company said customers would be closely watched to ensure social distancing.
It explained: “Dedicated staff will monitor the pub at all times in order to maintain social distancing standards and there will be a member of staff on the door at peak times.
“There will be an average 10 hand sanitiser dispensers around the pub, including at the entrance for customers and staff to use
“The pubs will use one entrance with a separate exit door where possible.”
Customers will be asked to pay via the Wetherspoon’s app or use contactless debit and credit cards.
However, cash will still be accepted, it added.
Food will also be served again, but with a reduced menu to allow kitchen staff enough safe space and condiments including ketchup, salt and pepper will only be available in sachets.
Staff will also need to complete and sign a daily health assessment questionnaire to confirm that they are fit to work and have a digital thermometer temperature check.
With reporting from PA
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After the way they treated their staff, I reckon everyone should be boycotting this place and giving their business to locally run pubs.
@Andrew Behan: if they opened in the morning the place would be full by lunchtime. I’d put any money on it.
@Andrew Behan: do you think the locally run pubs have health insurance plans and generous severance packages.?
@NotaWarder: 0 likes 0 followers in 5 years on Twitter what’s your agenda
@NotaWarder: generous severance packages??
@NotaWarder: For zero-hour workers? I doubt they have any rights that aren’t enforced by law.
I would hope Irish people would give Wetherspoons a wide berth after how they’ve treated their staff.
@ObsidianShine: I rather give up drink than give that tw*t any of my money. Plenty other decent pubs available once this is over I hope.
Not only with the fact how they treated the staff. But would you be bothered going to any pub under the conditions and restrictions
@john sheridan: in fairness, the restrictions might well improve the atmosphere in spoonies.
@john sheridan: sure we are better off without the drink.
@john sheridan: ye I have gone to them since they reopened here in Canada last week , not a big deal just sit at your table with your friends and get the drinks delivered works fine….
@David Cullinane: You wouldn’t be allowed to sit closer than 2m to someone who doesn’t live with you by the Irish plan.
@john sheridan: yes, i would. I usually sit with my friends having pints, so now I don’t even need to leave the table to get the rounds in? Sounds great.
@8-Bit-Relic: wrong. I suggest you read the Road Map document, pg6. The social distancing requirements are up to Phase 4. The mention of distancing for social gatherings is dropped in Phase 5.
@JDel: 5c of the document is mentioned pubs in particular. The can open if cleaning and social distancing can maintained.
You may read it more closely
Support Irish pubs when they open and not these british brexiteer blow ins.
@Liam Preston: good point. I used to go to Wetherspoons a bit for the cheap pints when they first came here but now I’d rather spend the extra 10-20 over the course of the night to go into a pub with a bit of atmosphere and support local businesses.
I feel pub life will return to normal a lot quicker than people think. Because .. alcohol ..
@Logan Shepherd: Because the closure of our hospitality and tourism sectors costs us over 1billion a week.
@Mark Malone: since when did hospitality and tourism contribute that much to Irish GDP? 2019 tourism contributed about €9 billion for the year. Hospitality contributed €7.6 billion. There are overlaps between the two, meaning the total figure is less than the combined figure. But, even if we do simpleton logic and add the two, that’s €16.6 billion, which is a figure far less than your €52 billion.
@Mark Malone: Hospitality is surely about more than people buying drinks in pubs?
Those publicans lobbying to reopen next month are showing their irresponsibility.
Everyone else respects the phased reopening of businesses .
@Eug J Cummins: No not irresponsible, they are just trying to get the estimated 200,000 hospitality sector staff back to work safely and off the live register
@Paudie Ireland: No they’re not. They couldn’t care about the staff. To them, the staff are simply instruments by which the owners can make more money for themselves. The staff coming off the live register is simply incidental. But, thanks for the laugh.
Any place that opens under the guise of selling food should be told by government that they can sell food only and no alcohol until August. See how they work with social distancing, plus how many people realistically are going to go to a pub for food and not alcohol. Give them a couple of months to tweak anything that need to be tweaked.
@Olivia Smith: in that instance you would have to tell restaurants they cant serve alcohol either.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Exactly. Food only
@Olivia Smith: Dont know about you but when i go out for dinner i enjoy a glass of wine with my meal.Im sure many people do
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: I do and like I said let them trial food with no alcohol first. I’d bet my life if there was no alcohol there would be no customers. They can wait until August. The 6 news have just said the rate of positive tests have gone up today. We have done it for 2 months already and another couple won’t kill us.
@Olivia Smith: the RTE 6 news said rate of positives has gone up? I don’t think they did, cases went up but the rate didn’t I don’t think unless I missed something while watching it?
@Aaron O’Leary: Go and watch again. More cases today.
@Aaron O’Leary: Cases/ rate Same thing in my opinion. Stay the fu** at home until we have zero cases.
@Olivia Smith: ah all this nanny state nonsense – if people have a problem alcohol then just stay at home and whinge about the world – the vast majority of people want us to try get some semblance of a country back – the lockdown was required to stop the health service being overwhelmed and that was achieved – nobody voted for a 15 week slow and overly conservative reopening and those of us that want a much quicker reopening are pretty sick and tired of people lecturing and jumping on high moral horses tutting about about anyone wanting to have a few pints and have a bit of craic – not to mention the jobs and importance of trying to get the whole island back running again – sick of the nanny state nonsense these days.
@Olivia Smith: you can tell the restaurant that too, but tell them they can allow people to bring in a bottle of wine to the restaurant and the restaurant charge a corkage fee. Restaurant happy enough well maybe but the pubs are sick as a pig with that rule.
@Olivia Smith: Literally a dry run? That sounds reasonable to me. I’d like to go and have a meal out, and it wouldn’t bother me. I’d say people would enjoy going out together for a change, even without a drink. Your post read as if you didn’t want anyone to go out later on. I think they would go, and would be more relaxed if no one is drinking there for the first month. There would be less chance of anyone overdoing it and turning nasty.
I wouldn’t darken the door of any of that Brexit tosspot’s establishments.
geejbgukmof hgyjfrszg kjgfrxdrub a
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: good point
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: someone lives near a still open weatherspoons I see.
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: that’s exactly what I was thinking, or a mouse is running all over your keyboard.
@Anthony Ryan Dunne: I think it was all about a housing crisis in a few weeks now that the FA cup is not the only one in a game of a good game in a stadium where he has a great show of a great deal with it and he’s not going for the next election but I am a believer that he has been in a good position to play.
I speak gibberish too
Tim Martin represents every thing that we find repugnant about Britain. I hope his pubs are boycotted and that when brexit finally happens he and his kind are tarriffed so heavily he will just leave. I remind everyone how he treated his employees and his attitude to us Irish and us as Europeans.
never liked the place ,,,no character not a patch on a proper Irish pub
Let’s hope the Government enables the HSA powers to enter licensed premises with a view to ensuring health and safety measures relating to Covid19 are in force. More importantly they should have the powers to immediately close any premises where non compliance is an issue.
@Colonel Grant: yes, we must all hope the benevolent state seizes and exercises supreme authority over as many aspects of our lives as possible.
@Colonel Grant: the HSA officers are on power trips as it is.
@Gordon Comstock: the sooner we get past this phase of people whining and moralising when all everybody wants to do is get some semblance of a normal life back after listening to months of moralising akin to the church in the 50s – its all horsesh*t
It’s getting ridiculous at this stage. Be like going for a pint in the A and E department. You can shove this, I can’t imagine anyone going out to that rubbish. 1807 total cases in the entire country right now. The government and health authorities have surely taken a stupid pill. This is insane on so many levels..
@Sean Dermody: think this might be the first medical dictatorship in history. Even Caligula wouldn’t have come up with a concept so bizarre.
@Sean Dermody: And why have we so few cases in the country right now? You guessed it, lockdown and social distancing like the government asked us to do.
@Cliff Burnby: You have written ‘forced us’ incorrectly.
@8-Bit-Relic: not really, as most things, including social distancing, were not legislated for. Very little was forced upon us. Thankfully most people used their brains and did like they were asked. Sorry if that ruins your “oppression” angle.
@8-Bit-Relic: forced / asked ? What difference does it make ? It was the right thing to do, it saved 100′s of lives and continues to. I’ll continue to be guided by the experts whether I’m forced or asked.
@JDel: Yes, that’s correct, nobody was really forced to do anything. There was no need when most of us have a bit of cop on.
@JDel: For someone talking about ‘using brains’ you should really check the lockdown documents again.
@Sean Dermody: “you can shove this” good man Dermody.
If they reopen, the best of the best for everyone. Not wetherspoons.
@Padraic O Sullivan: I wouldn’t really be a fan but a cheap pint in fairness!
I wouldn’t lower myself to even use their toilets
Disgusting pub
Disgusting company
Repugnant owner
How do you social distance in a gents toilet with urinals. As for pubs opening as a restaurant if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you guessed it…..
@Plumbers Dublin: unless your piss and that of an infected person next to you lasts more than 10 to 15 minutes, you’re not a close contact. Gents toilets will now likely include queuing. I’m sure 51% of the population can provide us with the necessary guidance…
@Plumbers Dublin: fairly easily actually, you put the lock on the main toilet door. One in one out.
@Plumbers Dublin: it’s a hippopotamus??
And if you are in a Weatherspoon such as the forty foot which will hold well over 150 people inside and out with social distancing the queue will be marked 2 metres from the toilet door. The queue will be like at your local dunne or tesco going all over the place. Also take in to account your 20 second hand washing. So you feel the need to use the toilet, will you queue for 20 minutes?
@Plumbers Dublin: with social distancing you wont have anywhere near 150 people inside or outside any bar in the country.
@Plumbers Dublin: Back to the ould outdoor jacks will sort all that out. Safer than an indoor one for now.
South Korea closed its pubs 4 days after re-opening due to a cluster forming with dozens of cases…
It is not essential to drink in a pub
It is not essential to have a drink with your meal in a restaurant or pub
A awful business that hates the EU and treats its staff like utter sh***, people should avoid them and support other businesses
@Cliff Burnby: I was all in for the lockdown but not a fan of the reopening plan due to many reasons.
If someone wants to say that it isn’t forced, he is making a wrong statement. If you drive outside your area you would be sent home or fined. The same would also be the case for restricted businesses.
The only experts which are currently asked are experts for the virus. No psychologist, pedagogist, no economic expert, no whatever…
The idea was promoted to flatten the curve and the narrative seemed to have changed to eradicate it.
@8-Bit-Relic: (my phone jumped the thread, sorry)
@8-Bit-Relic: I don’t think the plan is to eradicate the virus, they’ve said themselves we can’t. I’d say the fear is a bigger, worse 2nd wave hits us like what happened with the Spanish flu. I’m no big fan of the government but in my opinion they are getting this exit out of lockdown right. Slowly, slowly. I realise of course the lockdown is causing other problems but we have to get this right. If we go backwards all of our problems will multiply. Those calling to open everything up right now are idiots but the only thing worse than an idiot is a dangerous one.
@Cliff Burnby: I won’t be in favour to open everything now but it should be considered how much is not allowed since 2 months and the effects. Again, those are not considered in any official discussion related to the phases.
A 2nd wave will come if the virus isn’t eradicated. The worst thing what could happen that it hits us before they allow people being humans again and get them sense to go on.
If the 2nd wave would come while in lockdown and Leo then decides to go again in full lockdown could you imagine that people would adhere to it like now and businesses which haven’t opened yet would have to hold on for another 6 months?
That can’t work.
@8-Bit-Relic: I just don’t think he would have any choice but to lock us down again if the numbers started to rise like they did in March. There’s no easy answers but I am in favour of exiting the lockdown as it stands now though. Combatting the virus has to take priority over everything else unfortunately.
@Cliff Burnby: I doubt he would be able to convince the majority of business owners to file bankruptcy and removing the ability for their employees to pay for mortgages or rent.
The human aspects would come on top of that. I see a lot of fear mongering in relation to the opening countries but these openings are necessary to maintain peace, public order, hope and so on.
I’d rather drink the hand sanitizer than the pi## water they serve.
I’d prefer to drink warm cans of Dutch Gold in a boggy field then set foot in one of those dodgy reproductions
If the queueing system wasn’t bad enough already.
@Sean Dermody: thought this was a great IT piece – the week the phased reopening was announced I commented that I thought we are being far too conservative and slow in reopening – the amount of vitriol and messages i got just for suggesting that we don’t just ‘accept the CMO advice’ and ‘save lives’ was unreal – now we are 5 days into the 15 week reopening and more people are starting to see that we are intent on being the slowest EU country to reopen – the reality still hasn’t dropped that we are taking 5 phases at 3 weeks when WHO says fewer phases with 2 weeks intervals would work , we are insisting on 2 metres when WHO says 1 metre is workable – we are constantly taking the most conservative road everytime – and it’s horseshi*
Cash will be accepted so long as it’s small notes, tried to pay with a 50 in the UK last, they wouldn’t take it but neither would the bank across the road. Mad Ted.
@Ian James Burgess: Wouldn’t it make sense to accept coins, which can be sanitised? My local shop has a till with a chute to count coins – the staff members don’t have to do that. It must be trickier to clean notes.
Sad fact is, we know that Tim Martin has shot himself in the foot, but if he is allowed to fully re-open his Irish pubs, they will pack to the doors…. no Wetherspoons are near where I live so I’ll support our ‘locals’
Funny because in the short term all Irish pubs will effectively become a Spoons, atmosphere wise anyway, with no music little to no craic, no soul. Can’t wait!
I for one will be Boycotting this place! NEVER will i spend money here
If the Wetherspoons staff in Ireland are anything like their UK staff, a vaccine for Covid-19 will have been discovered before they finish pulling a pint, having a chat, fixing their collective hair-dos, flirting and laughing at private jokes among themselves.
They sell piss.stay closed
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