Indoor dining Time limit of 105 minutes, groups to be capped at six

over 4 years in The Irish Times

New guidelines for the resumption of hospitality to be released on Tuesday will put a 105-minute time limit on indoor visits to pubs and restaurants, it is understood.
Sources say the guidelines will have a huge focus on ventilation for indoor venues when they reopen, likely in July.
There will be a distance of one metre between tables, and a limit of six people per booking.
For outdoor dining a distance of one metre will also apply, and it will be up to each establishment to decide if they want to set a time limit and if so how long this should be for.
The guidelines were still being worked on by Fáilte Ireland on Monday evening, it is understood.
The CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) Adrian Cummins said that the hospitality sector was looking forward to returning, but he repeated a call for all restaurants to be allowed to serve food indoors from June 2nd, the same date on which hotels will be allowed to do so.
Mr Cummins said rules permitting hotels to serve food indoors should be extended to all restaurants. “We would like to open in line with hotels because there is no difference between a hotel restaurant and an independent restaurant next door to them,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
“The indications are that the guidelines will be, there or thereabouts, the same as last year for indoor hospitality, but the difference for outdoor hospitality will be that there will be no time limits for people,” he said.
Last year’s guidelines had worked well for the food business, they had been implemented “as best we could”, he said.
“We are looking forward to these being published so people can start to plan and prepare for reopening when we get a date to reopen restaurants, gastropubs and coffeeshops across the country.”
Mr Cummins welcomed the one-metre space between tables, anything bigger would leave many businesses unviable, he warned.
“We always said that one metre is a viable space for hospitality but two metres is not viable at all because you lose nearly 75 per cent of your space within a business. At one metre, you still lose space. You lose about 25 per cent of your space within a restaurant. That is a loss of income, that puts a lot of pressure on a business to operate viably.
“We want to get back open as soon as possible.”
While the Cabinet will meet later this week to set dates for the future reopening of hospitality and international travel, a further Cabinet meeting next week on June 1st will consider the issue of financial supports for the hardest-hit sectors, including pubs.
Ministers are keen to see additional supports extended to pubs such as enhanced grants for the supply of outdoor furniture.
It comes after Minister for Tourism Catherine Martin said that pilot live events of varying sizes will take place across the country in June and July, including rock, classical and comedy gigs, as well both indoor and outdoor theatre events.

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