A local publican says rural pubs have been abandoned by government.
Pubs that don’t serve food won’t reopen until at least August 31st, as Phase Four of lifting the Covid-19 restrictions is being delayed by three weeks.
John Colgan is the owner of Carlow’s Carpe Diem bar, which has been shut for over 5 months now.
He says the latest setback has been devastating for rural publicans:
“There is no light at the end of the tunnel for us. The government has abandoned us. They’ve put no package in place. We were depending on this July stimulus, but lets be honest that was of very little relevance to rural publicans. The talk of billions in loans, but who wants to take out a loan when you haven’t opened your doors and haven’t taken in a single penny in all this time?” he told KCLR Live.
