A North Clare Restaurateur is urging the Government not to make any snap decisions on re-opening indoor dining and risk closing down the hospitality sector again before the summer is out.
It comes ahead of a decision tomorrow on whether indoor dining should go ahead on July 5th.
The National Public Health Emergency Team is meeting today to consider its advice on the further easing of Covid 19 restrictions and cabinet will make a final call tomorrow on whether indoor dining will resume on July 5th.
It’s thought this may be delayed by two weeks to get more people vaccinated, due to concerns about the Delta variant.
Health experts say the variant, which first originated in India, is more transmissible and those who catch it are more likely to end up in hospital.
The Tánaiste says a delay to re-opening is “not inevitable” though.
Leo Varadkar say decisions tomorrow will be cautious.
Questions are being asked at cabinet about how effective a two week delay in re-opening would be on limiting the spread of the Delta variant.
Padraig Cribben from the Vintners Federation says a further two weeks will be extremely damaging.
But one business owner in North Clare believes that a start-stop spiral will be far more damaging to the hospitality sector in the long run.
Aidan McGrath of the Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvara says what happened at Christmas is proof it’s better to be safe than sorry.
