A prominent Kilkenny publican is unhappy with the latest draft guidelines from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
Their proposed new measures will allow the two metre social distancing rule to be reduced to one in certain circumstances.
But it means people may only be allowed to spend 90 minutes in restaurants and pubs that serve food when they reopen at the end of the month.
Paris Texas owner Pat Crotty is concerned about rushing his customers. “You don’t want to be turfed out, or to have to gulp down a nice, expensive meal in 90 minutes” he explained to KCLR Live. “It isn’t a particularly well thought out condition”.
He also points out that the measures aren’t practical for special occasions or larger groups; “It begs the question, if these are the parameters for eating out in public for the next while, is it also going to apply to weddings…Will they need to have the meal part of it over within 90 minutes? I mean that would be a world record if it happened!”