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AROUND TWO-THIRDS (65%) of pubs outside Dublin that are still closed believe they’ll go out of business by January 2021, based on current conditions.
Just over one in five (22%) believe they’ll survive for at least a year according to the survey published this morning by the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI).
The pub trade has said that around 3,500 pubs around the country remain closed due to the current public health guidelines on Covid-19, with the government expected to announce this week if pubs can reopen on 31 August.
However, due to rising cases of the coronavirus, re-opening dates for pubs have already been put back and publicans fear that it could be some time before they’re permitted to re-open.
The pubs that have been permitted to re-open since 29 June must serve a “substantial meal” to customers, and must strictly adhere to guidelines around time limits and social distancing.
According to the VFI survey, which included responses from 1,539 publicans, most in the industry believe that the end of August re-opening date will be delayed for a third time by government.
The vast majority (95%) say they need grant aid from the government for each week they remain closed for their pub to survive.
Nearly half (48%) say they’ve accrued debts of over €16,000 since the crisis began, while 19% say they’ve built up debts of over €30,000.
A further 82% no longer support the government while 96% believe the government has no plan that will allow non-food pubs to re-open while the crisis persists.
VFI chief executive Padraig Cribben said: “They feel like they have been cast adrift with no support and only shallow declarations of ‘sympathy’. There is little expectation that the government will allow these pubs to reopen next week.
So the question is what are they going to do for these pubs who are being deprived from opening their doors by government order. If they are being asked, as the government has put it, to “make national sacrifice” then the government must have a plan that recognises that sacrifice and allows these businesses to survive.
The issue of pubs re-opening will be discussed at Cabinet and it is expected a decision will be announced before the weekend.
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Leo would have opened them by now. Current government have no backbone for making hard decisions!
@Chris Gaffney: Leo would do what he was told to do just like the jokers he’s in government with
@Chris Gaffney: Leo didn’t open them when he had the chance.
@Chris Gaffney: Leo is number 2 in this government. I really wish people would stop talking about him like he has no say on how things are going.
@Lad: should have opened everything, within reason, June 1st . Major mistake delaying
@Chris Gaffney: how do you know Leo would of opened them by now ? You don’t, so your point is invalid !
How many other countries have their pubs closed? Spain and Italy had their nightclubs open for goodness sake!
@Monster Munch: Irish people can’t be trusted with alcohol, it’s that simple.
@Monster Munch: and you saw what happened when nightclubs were opened? Huge spike in cases and they were closed again
@TheBurner: nightclubs not pubs….a big difference
@Fred the Muss…: Ah yes! Little old Oireland, where it’s all Paddywhackery and Shenanigans!
We’ve no more a drinking culture than Belgium, Czech, Slovakia, Scotland, England, Germany etc etc etc.
@Monster Munch: Italy have numbers of over 800 a day again
@Dublin days: From a population of 80 million. Equivalent of us having 50…
@Monster Munch: 60 million.
@Julian Friesel: Correct. 60 odd cases, instead of 50 then. Main point still stands.
@Fred the Muss…: Nonsense cliché argument that you’ve just mustered up in your head
Irish people have been exceptionally responsible throughout this pandemic
@Monster Munch: You don’t have a point.
@Dub Cell: My point is quite simple. Countries all over Europe have their bars open, some with worse outbreaks than us even dared to open nightclubs. In spite of this deaths are still down up to 98 percent in all countries that had a significant outbreak in Spring.
For some reason we are outliers on this and seem to have really doubled down on an unattainable zero Covid stategy all on our own. As a small country on the western tip of Europe that shares a land border with a larger nation, it’s a nonsense strategy.
Is there another country in Europe that still has its pubs closed?
@Monster Munch: Perhaps you might look at some recent news from Spain.
@Tordel Back: You mean where they’ve been averaging over 2,000 cases everyday for a month. But their deaths are still at about 30 a day? Which is a 96 percent decrease on the peak?
@Luke: BS. There’s a cohort of people out there who couldn’t care less. I know pubs that don’t serve food and are open via the back door. Other pubs serving pizza from the place next door, and food pubs that are having free for all’s. No distancing, no tracing etc.
You might have a little more sympathy if members of your family or friends had died from this.
Irish people have a very poor relationship with alcohol, end of story.
@Fred the Muss…: I’ve a relative who died with Covid and whose funeral I couldn’t attend. Does that make my position more valid? I wouldn’t think so. Don’t know why people think people affected by this all have the same opinion.
The question here is about pubs. Why are we an outlier on this? Is there another country that has it’s bars closed?
@Monster Munch: no, but then the overall advice (social distancing, table service only) were part of the norm across Europe. Here, we have a disfunctional relationship with pubs. If all of these pubs instantly opened as cafes, serving alcohol under restaurant rules, would they need to close down? No, but they wouldn’t get the same profits and punters would think they just need to give a wink and it’s ok to get langered in huge groups again.
@Monster Munch: bars and clubs in spain and italy are sh#te doesnt matter of they are opened to closed .
Open them in countys where there is no covid for locals only.
@Munster1: that may not be a viable option for the publican. The costs of opening/ running the pub on a day to day basis would need more than a few locals to make it cost effective.
I feel so sorry for the pubs government are wrong for kepping them closed
@Fran O’Keeffe: in your opinion Fran !
Part of me says let them have a go and prove it can be done safely yet you look at bars around world and after reopened they’ve been shut again, how would it be any different here. Then again the food bars here haven’t had much case rises or issue. A tricky situation.
Open them and let them hold 5 a side GAA matches – a whinge whinge situation.
They’ll probably be opened in the next few days again, the government needs a distraction from the golf dinner
@Anto H: They’re fine for distractions thanks to the mob with their almost daily links to collusions with murderers..
I think they’re out of business now too
Restaurants with bars are compliant but bars that serve so called food are taking the piss…. A couple of pizza boxes scattered around and food receipts totalling €9 as a receipt for buying drink!!!
@LOI Opinion: any Covid cases connected to these blatant workarounds? If not then these pubs are correct in pursuing this workaround.
@Daniel Dunne: just like the golfing dinner “workaround” ? The Irish are great at finding loopholes and workarounds.
@Daniel Dunne: we have up to 50 new cases a day tired to community transmission in Dublin, with a young demographic. Do you think these were sitting around isolating like the majority of people, or the young people who are out and about and symptomatic?
The Ha’Penny Bridge Pub is open in Dublin, they are flouting the rules to the delight of Dubliners. If they can do it, why not the pubs all over the country as well? In my apartment block yesterday I heard a woman say she was “taking out the trash” – clearly American. Why is she here? Why can’t rural pubs be open? This government has absolutely no idea what they’re doing.
@Drunk in Dublin: Did you ask the “American Woman” to produce her Papers?
@Drunk in Dublin: looks like you’re still drunk.
@Drunk in Dublin: there are some people in Ireland who are American and being living here years n sure she was only putting out the rubbish which she’s wept up from what your talking
And I was in temple bar the weekend n was in 3 bars one of which was the one you mentioned and I was made sign in and told must have food if want a pint and giving my table
And must say the pizza and pint weren’t bad at all i might even go back this evening to tell them what a well run pub it is in these tough times
@Drunk in Dublin: So when I lived in NYC, all those Irish accents i heard daily were from tourists only.
I am a publican. Since this began publicans have been demeaned, ridiculed,outcast, given no meaningful support, advice or finance from this excuse we call a government. How they expect business to survive is anyone’s guess, but they throw money at farmers & food factories. The only money available is the restart grant. Most pubs are so small that the limit is €2,000. That is all the majority of pubs have got as aid since March. There is money from the Enterprise grant, board failte etc, but as you can guess the majority of Publicans do not qualify. What the government has done is taken the keys of or business away from us & told us to get on with it, but dont forget to keep up with the bills. In all fairness does this sound like a rational & fair government.
Could have been open when we had low amount of cases to give them something. Now we are at a stage again where we lockdown part of the country.
I’ve been puzzling this one since the start, but surely businesses that are closed by government instruction should have their fixed costs (including rent, mortgages etc) covered by the State. I’d rather incur yet more debt than see either a vital cultural industry collapse, or kick-start exponential growth in infections again. It’d mean publicans and staff getting by on PUP or rejigged equivalent for many months yet, but has to be preferable
I hope they will open in September after the kids go back to school.
People aren’t going to go to pubs while risking their lives just so they can stay open. That’s ludicrous! Drinking at home is the only safe option & is becoming the new norm.
@Edel Quinn: should probably stop driving our cars too. It’s risking our life’s and others around us.
With mandatory masks wearing in force there is no valid reason to have pubs closed …. no mask no pint to be enforced by the publicans and if you get covid19 from the pub you drank in well then no complaints as it was your choice!
Just shut the country completely down for 2 weeks and police Ireland like China, Russia, Belarus for example and solve the problem once and for all and dont let anybody onto the Island period .simple as that..
A pizza oven can do one pizza every 7 minutes so theoretically a group of 6 will take 45 minutes to serve , so three tables of 6 come in that’s 2 hours so table 3 better be ordering to go , the government knows what is going on but turn a blind eye and are also paying the majority of the wages , if job available you lose covid payment do hand is forced but if you don’t serve food you can’t open , hypocritical government either open the pubs or close them all , any pub that had restaurant licence prior to march could be classified as restaurant, this is a complete fundamental lack of fairness or equality in the current situation but we cannot expect any better from this farce of a government who sound out with pompous indignation about people’s behaviour but abdicate leadership themselves
Someone’s an to destroy society as we know it is working
Close all pubs and off licence immediately
But the shebeens and house-pubs are doing great business. Pint 4 euro and no social distancing.
Good
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