The decision to close businesses on a Friday night was wrong – so says one local hotelier affected by the lockdown in Laois, Kildare & Offaly.
The three counties are restricted for the next fortnight following a spike in coronavirus cases there.
The Talbot Hotel markets itself as a Carlow business, but technically it’s about 500 meters over on the Laois side of the border.
120 people are employed at the venue and its sister outlet The Dome.
The hotel’s General Manager William Burke says they’ve all been impacted:
“Our staff are obviously very disappointed. We had worked so hard over the last five weeks to build the business back up a bit in the Talbot hotel and make sure our staff were back to work. We had regained 100% employment in the hotel. For this to happen overnight basically, especially at 6 o’clock on a Friday night, to make an announcement to close the hotel, I think the decision to be taken on a Friday night was wrong in the first place. That should have been done earlier in the week to give us time to prepare for the people that should have been arriving to the hotel over the course of the weekend.”
