Frustration mounting for Carlow businesses on the Laois border following lockdown

There’s growing frustration among local businesses on the border between Carlow and Laois over the reintroduction of restrictions.

It follows the government’s plans to introduce local lockdowns in Kildare, Laois and Offaly following a cluster of Covid outbreaks in meat packing plants.

Bernard Horohan is the owner of Tile ‘N’ Style which is based in Shamrock Business Park in Graiguecullen.

He told KCLR NEWS it’s very confusing for businesses on the borders, as they’ve received very little guidance from government and there’s genuine fear from businesses:

“It’s very difficult to be honest. There’s a lot of confusion. There is guidelines after being released by the government, but it’s just- confusion is the word that I’d use because speaking to other businesses around us and in the locality, they’re very fearful that if they close they mightn’t reopen again. From our own side, we have a lot of things in place since Covid started. We have temperature checks coming in, with names and numbers for traceability. We’ve masks available for people, we have sanitising stations at the front door and around the shop. From our point of view we’re doing everything 100%. We’d be very disappointed as a family, local business if we had to close.”