"It turns out our industry was utterly disposable."
Rory O'Neill has said that Covid-19 has "ended" the bar industry in Ireland, saying that he is "struggling" with the current lockdown restrictions.
Speaking on the Six O'Clock Show on Tuesday evening, O'Neill said that he had a much more positive attitude during the first lockdown, but that he now spends his days "arguing with the bank arguing over mortgage payments."
O'Neill, also known as Panti Bliss, owns the popular Panti Bar in Dublin.
He lamented the fact that the bar and entertainment industry in Ireland turned out to be "utterly disposable", and said that Covid has been very different for different people across the country.
He said: "I read this thing that I just can't get out of my head that 70 per cent of the population have saved money during the pandemic for not going on holidays and stuff.
"I live in a parallel universe because everybody I know who works in the entertainment industry or the bars or whatever, we've all lost everything.
"So I spend all my days arguing with the bank arguing over mortgage payments.
"Everything just ended. It turns out that our industry is utterly disposable.
"I think the experience of the pandemic has been very different for different sections of the population."
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