A spokesperson for a campaign to change the nightlife in Ireland says that nightclubs should be able to stay open until 6am.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee is to announce plans today which would extend the opening hours of pubs and clubs.
The proposed legislation would also include the scrapping of a fee of over 400 euro which pubs and nightclubs have to pay to stay open late.
Spokesperson for Give Us The Night, Sunil Sharpe, says that clubs should be able to set their own closing time, noting “I think where a nightclub is not causing disturbance to neighbours I believe that then you should be able to fix your own times but we’re also realistic, it’ll take a long time to change the mindset in Ireland, I mean I don’t want to put a figure on it but I do think a city like Dublin I feel many areas I don’t see a reason why a nightclub can’t go to 5 or 6am”.
Meanwhile, Gerry Rafter of Rafter Dempsey’s in Kilkenny says his sector as a whole needs a solid plan going forward.
When asked how are things are in his sector, he said “They’re non-existant aren’t they, I mean we’ve been locked down, the whole hospitality trade has been locked down save a few weeks in the summer last year and a few weeks again in December and back down to lockdown again so it’s real struggle, there’s no doubt about it, there are some government supports there but those efforts from government to support the trade would need to be at least doubled because there are ongoing bills to be paid, publicans are still having to pay mortgages and support their families and that’s not-with-standing the fact that there’s so many staff that are sitting at home on the PUP”.
He adds “I won’t say it’s gone beyond a joke because it’s nothing to joke about but it’s definitely very, very difficult, it’s been pushed out and pushed out and pushed out, what we really need are two things; we need the government to come out tomorrow with a new plan and give very definite dates as to when we can open and if not dates then at very least numbers which they can be vaccinated and numbers whereby the levels of new cases per day can grow by and then have an opening date for the hospitality trade, needs to be much better support for the industry than we’ve seen so far”.
