A Nenagh publican is pleading with the Government and health officials to give pubs a chance to prove they can reopen safely.
Damien Quinlivan of Figgerty’s Pub in Summerhill has spent thousands of Euro adapting the pub for social distancing in recent months, by adding Perspex dividers between tables as well as hand sanitiser stations.
Pubs which don’t serve food are due to reopen on August 31st as part of Phase 4, but this has twice been delayed already over the last month.
Damien is unhappy with the short notice they’re receiving when told that they can’t reopen.
“They need to actually come up with something now – whether it’s a rescue package or something but this thing about every three weeks it can’t be done anymore, we can’t hang on.”
“At the end of this month it will be make or break I’d say.”
“We’re all stocked up – we stocked up for the 20th of July, we freshened up again for the 10th of August. Now we have pubs full of stock sitting there and a lot of it running into it’s date so it will have to be picked up by the company again.”
Listen back to Michael Brophy’s chat with Damien here :
