Guidelines for re-opening pubs published
Over the last 24 hours Fáilte Ireland has been engaged in intensive discussions with officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport following guidance from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre for food service businesses to ensure some of Fáilte Ireland’s concerns – and those at of the industry – were addressed.
The Guidelines for the Re-opening of Pubs was published last night and on behalf of the industry Fáilte Ireland advocated for the changes outlined below which have now been accepted by the HPSC:
- Seating time has changed from 90 minutes to 105 minutes with an additional 15 minutes between bookings (two hours in total). The 15 minutes has been added to allow for adequate cleaning and to ensure customers leave and enter without mixing.
- Contact tracing: Businesses will now be required to collect the contact information of just the party lead. Previously, the original HPSC guidance had stated that this should be collected for the full group.
Where two metre physical distancing is not possible, businesses are now permitted to implement one metre physical distancing in controlled environments provided other risk mitigation requirements have been met and pre-booked time slots are in place.
“These guidelines are intended to provide clarity to businesses so that they can re-open safely on June 29th,” said Fáilte Ireland’s Chief Executive Paul Kelly, “I’d like to thank my team and officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport who’ve been working tirelessly on ensuring these guidelines are practical while adhering to public health advice.”
Fáilte Ireland guidelines are living documents which means that as Government restrictions and Public Health guidelines evolve, these documents will also evolve to reflect new Government advice and changes to protocols when they emerge.