Relaxation of Restrictions, Part IV - **Read OP for Mod Warnings**

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

this is brilliant.

You do realize people can get access to identical alcohol in restaurants right? I feel like you are a business owner whos competing with pubs, an offlicence owner perhaps?

Vertigo100 wrote: »

Sat in a hotel bar today with my fiancé and son we all had a lovely meal and I had a couple of pints. All socially distant. Tables well over 2m apart. Sanitising stations and all staff in masks.

I for one am delighted one hotel here in limerick said enough is enough and had just decided to open up its bar and restaurant for bookings.

My son really enjoyed being able to go out for a meal again as he is young and I’m explaining how we are getting back to normal by pointing out when we are able to do all the things we used to do.

Cheers guys here’s to many more, hopefully sooner that July 20th.

acequion wrote: »

Welcome back Jayesdiem. Your interesting posts will have been missed by many an open minded poster.

And I've been banned. For expressing opinions that don't suit a pro lockdown narrative and for robustly defending those opinions which got me caught up in heated arguments.

I fully share your fears and the fears of many others, not of Covid 19, but of another recession and share your anger that foolhardy Govt actions may have exacerbated the decline. I fervently hope not as a return to the type of austerity we experienced less than a decade ago would be as bad and a lot more wide reaching than any pandemic.

acequion wrote: »

Who's talking to you?? Are you a mod now with licence to decide these things!

"Downfall" I really have to laugh at your choice of words. :pac: There was no downfall. I called out certain posters on their insulting remarks about other posters and I would do it over and over again and be banned over and over again as I cannot abide bullies.

Penfailed wrote: »

You said you were banned for expressing an opinion that went against the narrative. I called you out on it. Fin.

Penfailed wrote: »

You said you were banned for expressing an opinion that went against the narrative. I called you out on it. Fin.

average_runner wrote: »

Not a business owner. Let's run an experiment.

Open restaurants for a month and monitor the behaviour.

Then shut restaurants and open pubs fully for a month and see the behaviour?


What will we see?

MickeyLeari wrote: »

From the Irish Times

Restaurants seek €1.8bn bailout amid threat of 50% closures

Economist warns it may take two years for restaurants to see pre-Covid business levels
Joe Brennan


The Restaurant Association of Ireland wants the State’s subsidised wages scheme to be extended beyond the current scheduled expiry in August. Photograph: iStock
The Restaurant Association of Ireland is seeking a package of supports totalling €1.8 billion, amid claims that one in every two businesses in the industry faces closure as a result of damage caused by the coronavirus crisis.

The lobby group is looking for the State’s subsidised wages scheme, which has supported the income of almost 500,000 workers across the entire economy in recent months, to be extended beyond the current scheduled expiry in August.

A report written for the industry group by economist Jim Power argues that restaurants, which are preparing to reopen their doors on June 29th following a lockdown of more than three months, will take up to two years to return to the level of business they were doing before the pandemic hit. It wants financial support to meet labour costs to continue for that time on a “gradually reducing basis”.

Support

The representative body is also looking for taxpayers to step in and cover rates, water and street furniture charges for two years, cut VAT for the sector to zero until the end of 2021, and introduce a scheme to cover between 25 per cent and 100 per cent of restaurants’ rent for a period to help them get back on their feet.

“The proposed measures would cost around €1.8 billion in a full year,” the report said. “However, the costs of not providing adequate support and allowing thousands of businesses die, would far outweigh those costs.

“It is conceivable that, without adequate support during this 24-month period, up to 100,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. Such an outcome would impose a very significant cost on the exchequer, which could be as high as €2.8 billion [a year].”

The report said that €2 billion of those costs would come from increased spend on social protection, with a further €500 from lost payroll taxes.

The Government projects that it is already facing a budget deficit of up to €30 billion this year as it deals with a surge in spending to support the economy and as well as an expected fall-off in tax receipts amid coronavirus.

The reopening of pubs and restaurants at the end of the month under the third phase of easing lockdown restrictions is being set against strict guidelines from Fáilte Ireland, the tourism agency. Customers will be restricted to spending a maximum of 105 minutes in an establishment.

Where the 2m rule of physical distancing is not possible, businesses will be permitted to implement 1m distancing in controlled environments as long as other risk mitigation requirements have been met and pre-booked time slots are in place.

Payment moratoriums

The Restaurants Association also wants Government backing in seeking loan payment breaks of up to two years. Banks have offered payment moratoriums of up to six months to households and businesses hit by the coronavirus shock.

The lobby group is also looking for excise duties on alcohol to be reduced.

“The restaurant sector has been impacted in a devastating fashion by Covid-19. Once it reopens, the trading environment will be extremely challenging as a result of social-distancing requirements, various health protocols, the absence of overseas visitors and consumer nervousness,” said Mr Power.

“It seems clear that many restaurants will struggle to survive in the challenging environment ahead, but it is equally clear that in order to rebuild the economically vital tourism sector over the next couple of years, it is essential that we have an abundance of high quality restaurants in the country.

“It is essential that the restaurant sector gets the maximum possible support from Government, to get the sector through the difficult times ahead.”

Penfailed wrote: »

It's fúcked up that you think that things like this will be in place in pubs in five years.

Jayesdiem wrote: »

Thanks for posting. I need to stop reading things like this because it gets me really angry. I feel so sorry for these SME owners. Some of them are so fckd right now, no bailout will be good enough. Those of a conspiratorial mindset would be forgiven for thinking that this was a very deliberate Darwinian cull of the weakest SMEs in our economy. Those who survived the slaughter would give birth to a stronger type entrepreneur who would mate with similarly robust members of the species to form an entrepreneurial “super race” that would put our country on the rise to perpetual wealth and prosperity. Back in the land of reality, these entrepreneurs now have to play charades in acknowledgement of a now-defeated virus, which is no worse than seasonal flu, and whose supposedly deadly second wave either isn’t occurring, or has been experienced already. The initial lockdown was necessary when we had no information on the threat posed by the virus. It became obvious after about three weeks that that threat was localised to a particular demographic and of no consequence for most others. I like to believe that one day, the hysteria-driven media and government will look back at the period March to September 2020 and realise what a terrible, awful mistake we made in destroying livelihoods in such a short space of time. We laugh at the Brits and their propensity to inflict wounds on themselves but we are right alongside them now and we’ve got a lower capacity to recover. This virus will be virtually eradicated by September but I’ll still be ordering pints behind a Perspex screen in five years time. How fckd up is that?