He said he has “no choice” but to reopen and is asking Gardaí to “use their discretion” and allow them to remain open.
Owner of Treyvauds Restaurant Paul Treyvauds is planning to reopen on 5 July regardless of whether or not the Government decides to push back the reopening of indoor dining.
Speaking on Ireland AM on Tuesday, Treyvauds said that there has been “no surge” since hotels reopened and called on Government to allow pubs and restaurants to be permitted to open on 5 July.
“At some stage, you just have to say this has now gone beyond a joke,” he said.
He added that there will be “utter carnage” coming down the line for businesses if indoor dining is pushed back again by Government as people are going to the North either way.
“I said that everyone from the South will go up North – that’s exactly what is happening,” he added.
“There are 250,000 people in hospitality right now that are in absolute bits. Absolute bits. They have no idea if they’re going back to work.”
When asked if he will be opening his own restaurant on 5 July, Treyvauds said that he believes he has “no choice” and is asking Gardaí to “use their discretion” and allow them to remain open.
Meanwhile, speaking on the same programme, DCU immunology professor Christine Loscher said that the “scale” of indoor dining and numbers of people mixing would be too risky right now due to the Delta variant.
“Indoor dining is just a really high-risk environment for in particular the Delta variant,” she said.
Loscher added that it would be beneficial to delay the reopening by a few more weeks to allow more people in vulnerable groups to receive their second doses.
The proposed reopening of indoor hospitality on 5 July looks likely to be delayed until at least 19 July following a late-night Cabinet Sub-Committee meeting on Monday.
The full Cabinet is set to meet this morning to sign off on proposals agreed by the Cabinet sub-committee last night, however, it seems that indoor dining might be off the cards for the next number of weeks.
After receiving some sobering recommendations from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), the sub-committee agreed to delay the planned re-opening of indoor dining – likely until at least 19 July.
However, it’s unclear whether indoor dining will be permitted to return even then. The possibility of reopening indoor dining exclusively for those who are vaccinated has also been discussed.
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