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TWO DUBLIN CITY restaurants owned by celebrity chef Dylan McGrath have closed without notice.
In a statement today, McGrath said it’s “hard to put into words what has happened to restaurants and the city centre in the last four years” as he announced the closure of Brasserie Sixty6 and Rustic Stone.
Brasserie Sixty6 had been in business for 25 years, while Rustic Stone was in operation for 15 years.
Both restaurants are on Dublin’s South Great George’s Street.
McGrath remarked that the “time has come where we have decided it’s simply not sustainable”.
He added: “No doubt we will miss the restaurants, but selling on the leases and concentrating on Fade Street Social currently is what’s needed.”
McGrath further remarked that the focus will now be on making Fade Street Social “the best it can be”.
McGrath also said it’s a “very challenging time for stand-alone restaurant models” and noted that both Rustic Stone and Brasserie Sixty6 have been “very successful restaurants in Dublin City for a long time”.
“But hospitality is changing,” said McGrath, “and we believe our strong work ethic is better applied to new and different opportunities.”
In a statement to The Journal, Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said that an “average of two restaurants, cafés and other food-led businesses continue to close each day across the country”.
He described this as “disturbing but, unfortunately, not surprising”.
Cummins added: “Rising costs and a pressurised consumer has meant our industry now faces a fundamentally broken model.”
He said that “only the reinstatement of the 9% VAT rate on food, reversing the Government’s 50% increase in the rate last September, will return long-term viability to the sector”.
VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors was reduced to 9% during the Covid-19 pandemic, at a cost of €1.2bn to the exchequer.
The previous 13.5% rate was reinstated last September, despite the sector’s opposition.
Last week, the Restaurants Association of Ireland said 577 restaurants had closed since the VAT rate was reinstated to 13.5%.
It added that in a recent survey of its members, 74% of respondents said they will have to close their businesses if the VAT rate on food is not reinstated to 9% in the Budget.
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They don’t investigate, I made a complaint to them two years ago and heard nothing back. I’m back in seetec now again at a huge financial loss to myself, they only reemburse bus travel and fuel, Im not on bus route nor own a car, so I have to pay 30€ a day to get in and out and they still insist I come in twice a week to use a computer that has so many security measures set up I can’t edit my cv if required, I can’t open company pages online to do research before applying. It’s a joke and they don’t care, I got very depressed after the first time, they too, made me feel worthless. They should stop using them by end of 2018
@Sam Glynn: That’s so unfair Sam. When I was on the dole, I was lucky to be able to walk a lot of places. If I had those kind of travel expenses I wouldn’t have had money for rent or food. I don’t know how you do it.
@Lisa Saputo: I’m in massive debt with family members, but I am in middle of long process of applications to a very good carrer job opportunity at the moment. I have told seetec nothing about it as I started process before got put back into their system. Interview in the new year, fingers and toes crossed.
@Sam Glynn: tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine,block their number.they phoned me last week asking for my PPS number stating that I was still one of their clients,told them to F off I’m working full time now 8 months through a job I got myself.
@Sam Glynn: Where are the investigative journalists to check out the money trail. and who benefits from these companies. and what connections they have in government.
Until we get rid of this government, we have to get used to every decision they make being ultimately motivated by big business interests ,as with Jobpath. Humanity is neither here nor there in their calculations
@Stephen Kavanagh: get rid of the government?
Not until 2020. And they’ll probably be voted in again.
@Chin Feeyin: That’s why we have to vote them out as soon as we get the chance again, the unholy alliance of FF and FG is the complete antithesis of how parliamentary democracy should work
@Stephen Kavanagh: and when you get rid of this government what’s your alternative a Sinn Fein government or more of the same as now realistically there is no alternative but on another note the country in theory can be run by civil servants ( NI for example )
@In my opinion: It’s such pessimistic thinking to think there’s no alternative. There’s always an alternative
@Stephen Kavanagh: on an optimistic hypothetical note do you believe Ireland would be a better place for the unemployed, homeless and working poor in 2023 than it is today if say PBP were elected to government tomorrow and Richard Boyd Barrett became Taoiseach for the next 5 years?
@Stephen Kavanagh: Stephen what makes you so sure the Government coming after Leo will be any better they wont because its going to be another make up of more or less the same FGFF
@Neville Bartos: I’m not sure but I think there is another way of doing things, it doesn’t necessarily have to be socialist but there is a great need for a different approach to politics in this country that isn’t completely wedded to corporate interests
@Stephen Kavanagh: the unfortunate problem is that the corporates are Ireland’s life support system. They keep us employed and paying exorbitantly high amounts of income tax and also VAT on all our purchases which keeps the government and public system running. Although the public system is not producing what it should re housing and health etc it would be worse if we don’t have corporates keeping us all employed.
@Neville Bartos: But corporations are very fickle. here today gone tomorrow, I would never want to base all of my economic forecast on them, we have to at least think about what we would do in their absence
@Neville Bartos: you may as well put Dustin the Turkey as Taoiseach.
@Stephen Kavanagh: their all the same you dick
These companies are telling people to lie on their cv’s and lie in interviews. And look what the state is paying these companies. Absolute joke.
@Dave Barrett: everyone lies on their cv.
@Chin Feeyin: I don’t.
@Chin Feeyin: worst idea ever
@Dave Thomas: yep lying on a CV not the way to go…
@Dave Thomas: well, “exaggarates”.
“Exaggerates”
MANY complaints have gone to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection – total waste of time.
Regina Doherty’s office is still putting out lies last week about JobPath – which we will expose in January along with hundreds of victim statements (yes, in many cases, their names and locations included).
JobPath RIGHT NOW is a future state investigation in the making.
Its abusive.
It’s law breaking.
TD’s at the top have known about all this and more – and we can prove it all.
They continue to lie about it at national and local level.
@Unitedpeople: can’t wait until they are exposed for what they really are,this company was under investigation in the uk for fraud and our shambles of a social protection minister and the rest of govt refuse to acknowledge it.after she is a failed buissness woman,typical of ffg putting these idiots in.
No matter what your qualifications are, they push you in to low paying, zero contract employment, customer service, hospitality, cleaning. It’s all in the brochure. You go there once a week and you are left to your own devices with no one on one attention, applying for jobs that you are over qualified for. You get a consultation once a month where you are told to apply for as many jobs available regardless of your work experience.
I am writing this on behalf of a friend who went through this.
The conpanies have made 150 million. The gov have reduced the unemployment figures from it. 18% of people that went through it got jobs from it. Its been a scheme to benefit the gov and the 2 companies involved.
Many things have been reported to Regina Doherty’s office and Leo Varadkar himself. We can prove this. They continuously refused to either respond or do anything. They stayed silent in the Dail – well except for saying it was a great setup with a success rate of 7% (out of 100%) that has cost the state €150 Million Euro so far.
The 7% success rate is also a lie (one of many) – which we intend to show next month in from of a Dail committee on the 17th – if our invitation to testify to a committee doesn’t suddenly vanish in the meanwhile!
@Unitedpeople: they don’t care. The ultimate I’m alright Jack brigade
Before these private companies were set up Community Employment Supervisors helped participants on Schemes with to get jobs and undertake training, Many did. Supervisors were paid nothing extra for this service.
@Aine O Connor: When I lived in Ireland I sponsored a Community Employment Scheme voluntarily. It was a very good way to enable people who were unemployed to up skill and eventually find meaningful employment. Later I was chairman of the county Local Employment Service Network which had offices throughout the county geared towards getting long term unemployed back to work. In reality there is a small cohort of people who simply do not want to work and want to milk the system. There are also people who for disability reasons are not able to work. Those who genuinely want work will find a pathway to employment. The system also disincentives a certain cohort from working because the benefits of staying unemployed outweigh the benefits of being employed.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair:
Community Employment Schemes are the backbone of many voluntary organizations who are doing invaluable work for their communities. I also sponsored a C.E. Scheme and served on the Board of a Community Development Group and a County Partnership Company. I also worked for a few years as a Supervisor of a rural Scheme . Many of the participants were men who when younger worked on buildings and on farms. Most were good workers and many applied for scheme they told me to alleviate loneliness and isolation . They were quite content to work their last few years on scheme and contribute to the community as well. Those who were genuinely interested in training and getting a job were successful. There will always be a minority who do not want to work.
Getting rid of it has nothing to do also with many physical and mental abuses that are about to be reported to the public in January then?
Right. Got it!
IT WAS NEVER NEEDED IN THE FIRST PLACE ANOTHER WASTE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY
That’s because Jobpath might be illegal under the EU rules like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Title I: Dignity : Article 5 – Slavery / Forced Labour.
“1. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”
Getting people to work a full week for 3 months in order to be entitled to their dole is forced labour… No wonder Jobpath is being gotten rid of as getting people to work a full week in order to get a dole payment of 100 euros is illegal or at the time 180 euros for me. Nothing extra for food or for travel and while on it…
Also…
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Title IV: Solidarity can be another part to this as well… But what will the government do now to reclass the unemployed as not being unemployed to play their figures???
https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/search-on-treaties/-/conventions/rms/090000168007cf93
“Article 12 – The right to social security
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social security, the Parties undertake:
1 to establish or maintain a system of social security;
2 to maintain the social security system at a satisfactory level at least equal to that necessary for the ratification of the European Code of Social Security;
3 to endeavour to raise progressively the system of social security to a higher level;
4 to take steps, by the conclusion of appropriate bilateral and multilateral agreements or by other means, and subject to the conditions laid down in such agreements, in order to ensure: a equal treatment with their own nationals of the nationals of other Parties in respect of social security rights, including the retention of benefits arising out of social security legislation, whatever movements the persons protected may undertake between the territories of the Parties;
b the granting, maintenance and resumption of social security rights by such means as the accumulation of insurance or employment periods completed under the legislation of each of the Parties.
Article 13 – The right to social and medical assistance
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social and medical assistance, the Parties undertake:
1 to ensure that any person who is without adequate resources and who is unable to secure such resources either by his own efforts or from other sources, in particular by benefits under a social security scheme, be granted adequate assistance, and, in case of sickness, the care necessitated by his condition;
2 to ensure that persons receiving such assistance shall not, for that reason, suffer from a diminution of their political or social rights;
3 to provide that everyone may receive by appropriate public or private services such advice and personal help as may be required to prevent, to remove, or to alleviate personal or family want;
4 to apply the provisions referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this article on an equal footing with their nationals to nationals of other Parties lawfully within their territories, in accordance with their obligations under the European Convention on Social and Medical Assistance, signed at Paris on 11 December 1953.
Article 14 – The right to benefit from social welfare services
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to benefit from social welfare services, the Parties undertake:
1 to promote or provide services which, by using methods of social work, would contribute to the welfare and development of both individuals and groups in the community, and to their adjustment to the social environment;
2 to encourage the participation of individuals and voluntary or other organisations in the establishment and maintenance of such services.
Article 15 –The right of persons with disabilities to independence, social integration and participation in the life of the community
With a view to ensuring to persons with disabilities, irrespective of age and the nature and origin of their disabilities, the effective exercise of the right to independence, social integration and participation in the life of the community, the Parties undertake, in particular:
1 to take the necessary measures to provide persons with disabilities with guidance, education and vocational training in the framework of general schemes wherever possible or, where this is not possible, through specialised bodies, public or private;
2 to promote their access to employment through all measures tending to encourage employers to hire and keep in employment persons with disabilities in the ordinary working environment and to adjust the working conditions to the needs of the disabled or, where this is not possible by reason of the disability, by arranging for or creating sheltered employment according to the level of disability. In certain cases, such measures may require recourse to specialised placement and support services;
3 to promote their full social integration and participation in the life of the community in particular through measures, including technical aids, aiming to overcome barriers to communication and mobility and enabling access to transport, housing, cultural activities and leisure.
Article 16 – The right of the family to social, legal and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the necessary conditions for the full development of the family, which is a fundamental unit of society, the Parties undertake to promote the economic, legal and social protection of family life by such means as social and family benefits, fiscal arrangements, provision of family housing, benefits for the newly married and other appropriate means.
Article 17 –The right of children and young persons to social, legal and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of children and young persons to grow up in an environment which encourages the full development of their personality and of their physical and mental capacities, the Parties undertake, either directly or in co-operation with public and private organisations, to take all appropriate and necessary measures designed:
1a to ensure that children and young persons, taking account of the rights and duties of their parents, have the care, the assistance, the education and the training they need, in particular by providing for the establishment or maintenance of institutions and services sufficient and adequate for this purpose;
b to protect children and young persons against negligence, violence or exploitation;
c to provide protection and special aid from the state for children and young persons temporarily or definitively deprived of their family’s support;
2 to provide to children and young persons a free primary and secondary education as well as to encourage regular attendance at schools.
Article 18 – The right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of other Parties
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of any other Party, the Parties undertake:
1 to apply existing regulations in a spirit of liberality;
2 to simplify existing formalities and to reduce or abolish chancery dues and other charges payable by foreign workers or their employers;
3 to liberalise, individually or collectively, regulations governing the employment of foreign workers;
and recognise:
4 the right of their nationals to leave the country to engage in a gainful occupation in the territories of the other Parties. ” Does Jobpath clash with Article 14?
Only people benefiting is company owners,FG squandering millions and FF waffle as if they can do nothing about it,which is an insult to the public.
@@mdmak33: And the IMF directing that nonsense as debt is good when the tax payers ends up with those bills?
In a period of full employment there shouldn’t be anyone out of work for more than 12 months. You’re either in work, in education or training to improve your qualifications and experience to find work, or have a genuine disability. Other than that you shouldn’t be paid a cent.
@An bhearna: Like to know how much Government provided education and subsidy you’ve appropriated to get you this far, enormous I’d bet, but wasted judging by your piss pour standard of trolling.
Training and self improvement the lazy mantra of the right wing. But then they fight tooth and nail against improved working conditions for people who do the essential work in our society.
Private companies with snouts in the trough.
Slave labour
Jobpath more like cowpath!
I’m seeing jobs advertised everywhere these days … my sympathy for unemployed people is dwindling ….. I moved to Dublin on 21k a year during the recession … and paid college loans out of that… so I am entitled to be smug now ….
You just be crazy being self employed in Ireland now unless you make millions, anything goes wrong and your f… as no state body will help you especially the social welfare. You hit hard times with illness then your double f…. and all you get is stupidity and anger from any government body you try to ask help off… They just refuse to help you if your self employed, so why would anyone be then?
@TamuMassif2019:
Not all cases, just ask Regina herself. She ran her company into the ground and stung the revenue & banks for over €100k. No bother, become a Fine Gael member, leech of the tax payer and get a full ministerial pension. Qualifications and proper credentials? Meh, they’re only for muppets.
http://www.thejournal.ie/regina-doherty-defends-liquidation-of-company-2781806-May2016/?amp=1
@Milk The Drones: But as I always say about politics, it’s not what you know but whom and the secret to life here is on every pub door… Pull and Push?
Totally a scam there to bully unfortunate people into unsuitable jobs…. speaking from family experience
Useless fool
have your say