Definitely?
Golf club bars and restaurants open on June 29 as well
The 30% or so capacity is the killer obviously. For many itâs possible for many more it isnât. Restaurants, clubs, hotels, venues, cinemas anthing to do with leisure sectors will struggle. A Denmark style plan is being talked about which sounds viable if all parties agree, where rents are subsidised by 60% for 3 months whlle social distancing is in force. Its frought with complications as you would expect, not all pubs pay rent and sometimes rates are factored into the rent. Also what happens after 3 months if social distancing is still all the rage. Family pubs that are not paying rent/mortgages should be fine whatever happens, establishments that are at the whims of the greater economy really and itâs pot luck with landlords as we know. Personally if I owned a pub I might operate it on a reservervation basis like restaurants, ie keep the door closed to all but those who have pre-booked and outline all restricive measure on booking. The days of roaming from pub to pub could be gone, one lad doing this in Seoul was responsible for closing the entire indusrty again.
Another key factor is enforcement, how are they going to enforce all these measures in every pub in the land? Talking to some Guards I know they think its undoable. The Health and safety crowd will have their hands full and they donât tend to stay up too late. Lock ins will be back with a bang Iâd say, if they ever hadnât been. There was plenty of talk of 24 hour licensing before COVID, even Leo was talking it up. Thats a mere formality now Iâd say.
The Road Map is vague as fuck too, plenty of scope for misinterpretation. Music is not allowed for example. If a fella pipes up with a tin whistle or someone starts belting out Spancill Hill in the corner, does that count as music? It wouldnât be hard to pre arrange a âspontaneuousâ session(most are as it is). Plenty of scope for mischief and Mick loves a bit of mischief so he does.
Also say for example the Championship did go ahead behind closed doors, and you can watch in a pub, how in fuck will social distancing be possible when Joe Canning scores the winning point 10 minutes into added time of the All Ireland Final against Tipp?
The VAT rate will come down, it was farcically high even before COVID. Commercial rates then will have to be recalculated. This is true for all sectors not just pubs. The overheads just to open the doors of a pub were already astronomical, they needed to be full every other night just to survive.
Longterm itâs impossible to say. You will find commentators and evidence to support whatever position you choose to take. Personally if a vaccine is found within 12 months Iâd expect pubs to rebound in a big way. If not and if social distancing does indeed become the new norm theyâre every bit as fucked as airlines would be.
There will be a cohort who will want to go out to pubs no matter what, where families and mortgages are not priority in their lives. Its very hard to see Galway survive as the town it is never mind pubs, without the student population or the tourists. We are all at the mercy of this thing. The UK market could prove critical, sadly, but still wonât be anywhere near enough. People who are laughing at the prospect of small businessâs going to the wall wonât be laughing when it hits their own paycheqes. And it will.
Overall I think the type of people who are shitting a brick about the corona wouldnât tend to be pub types anyway. And for those who are the restrictions will only become another source of amusement. Policing the balance between enforcing the measure as best as you humanly and preofessionaly can and people being entitled to their enjoyment will be key. There will be a line that you cannot cross. I wouldnât drink in a pub for example that didnât have a zero tolerance policy on violence of any description, peoples tolerance threshold for something like Social Distancing might be a bit hazy after a few scoops though. Indeed pubs might be better craic then ever for a while, people love what they cannot have, the best pint you ever tasted was the one you got on Good Friday back in the day. There may be a speakeasy quality to going out now for many. I reckon it will take a month or so of readjusting but after that people will just settle into whatever way things take shape.
Will pubs ever return in time to what they were? Just like everything else it comes down to these poxy scientists getting the finger out with a vaccine and if/when they ever do, thatâll be a day to head to the pub in clebration
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My cousins own a few pubs. 20 percent of their costs is insurance and rates.
Thatâs a great post
No mate. No it isnât.
Great post. I teed that up for you. I love Galway city but as you say itâll be unrecognisable and hard for businessâs there to go on if strict restrictions become the norm. Definitely rural pubs are best positioned to be less impacted as they might never be full anyway bar a weekend night so they can just tip away many of them with 30% capacity and maybe no rent to pay. The city and town pubs are going to really struggle. Surely many nightclubs will go under as well. Roll on June 29th I canât wait for a pint of Guinness again.
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The likes of shop street will have to become a massive beer garden, but with the amount of rain in Galway itâs barely a passable option for summer. A complete no go if it goes any later
Can you imagine social distancing in pubs in October or November though if itâs Limerick v Galway, or Kilkenny v Cork, or Waterford v Wexford, or Clare v Dublin in the All Ireland hurling final and fans canât attend the match? Sure theyâll all be yahooing and drinking their heads off in pubs. Be some boon for pubs actually but how will they manage the crowds. 
Bring your owns cans for the championship
Dr Tony seemed to poo pooh any ideas of the pubs reopening on June 29 a couple times last week. Then again he is a doctor. Most of them would close all the pubs permanently tomorrow if they had their way.
Only covering his own arse. Tony is up there with Seaney fitz and fingers for what hes doing to this country
If we were to take public health advice on everything, Alcohol, junk food and tobacco would all be banned.
Social distancing is a non runner long term. We will all get this virus eventually, have to back our immune systems to beat it and then it will burn itself out eventually.
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Same for riding all those diseases going around
All those things you mentioned are choices .
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Varadkarâs dad was my doctor for a while. A prick.
How many units of alcohol do you drink a week?
âEh 15-20â
Scribbles on pad âheavy drinkerâ
Used to absolutely lambaste his patients on any drinking
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Was he Indian.
Mick hates being told heâs a pisshead
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This is interesting. Every pub in Ireland is registered with the HSE, itâs a legal requirement and being registered allows you to serve food, restaurant license or not. As of yet the Govt has not clearly distinguished between a restaurant and a pub so basically as things stand every pub in Ireland with a toaster can open on June 29th. Now itâs pretty obvious a lot of pubs are not restaurants and vice versa but thereâs a world of grey in between. The govt will give clarity at some point probably saying something like you needed to have a restaurant cert before a certain date but they are taking their sweet time about it and restaurant certs are not all that hard to get in the meantime
Restaurant licences
You may have heard and read media coverage about publicans ârushingâ to court to secure a restaurant certificate that will reclassify the business as a restaurant thus allowing them to open on 29th June.
For a number of weeks now we have been seeking a promised meeting with the Department of Health to get absolute clarity on their interpretation of what constitutes a restaurant and what constitutes a pub. This is in response to many questions from members doing food. It now appears to us that the Department are avoiding that meeting and refusing to give clarity.
This is particularly unfair as many need to make adjustments to premises to comply with the perceived new requirements. We say âperceivedâ as there is lack of clarity there also. All food serving outlets are registered with the HSE and generally overseen by the HSE. You do not need any other certification to serve food.
The issue is that, without clarification, will that allow you to open on June 29th to serve food and alcohol with the food? We donât know the answer to that for reasons outlined above. That is where the Restaurant Certificate comes in.
Is it the VFI view that once a pub secures a restaurant certificate it cannot be prevented from opening on the 29th June as it can then be classified as a licenced restaurant as well as a pub. Of course, in this instance alcohol could only be served with a meal.
It is not necessary to have such a certificate if the premises has a minimum of 10 guestrooms.
This is a wholly unsatisfactory situation but inaction and lack of clarity from Government have left us with no option but to issue this guideline.
The facts about Restaurant Certificates are as follows:
This is a certificate issued by the local District Court that the premises may be deemed a ârestaurantâ under the Acts. It involves the Court issuing a declaration as to the suitability of the premises as a restaurant.
The application for a certificate can be made once the local GardaĂ have been notified and the necessary papers filed with the Court office.
Once a business premises has a licence (in a pubâs case this obviously would be a seven-day licence), the company or business principals can apply for this additional certificate. It is legally âattachedâ to the existing licence. It is not a licence in its own right and can only be sought where an existing licence is in place. The licence must also be current.
Restaurants which are the holders of a Wine Retailerâs on Licence, can also apply to the District Court for a Restaurant Certificate. The benefit of this addition to a basic restaurant licence is that by law, the restaurant can then serve beer to its customers.
Kind regards,
This might be a good work around from New York in the late 19th century. BB was on about it on his podcast a few weeks ago.