Fáilte Ireland has published its guidelines for the reopening of pubs, which apply to pubs, gastropubs and bars.
The full document of guidelines can be found via fáilteireland.ie by clicking on the COVID-19 Business Supports tab at the top of the homepage, subsequently clicking on the pubs option under "quick links" and then scrolling down and clicking "guidelines for re-opening" in the "support suites" section.
Changes To Food Service Business Guidelines
Fáilte Ireland also said that this week it engaged in intensive discussions with officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport following guidance from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) for food service businesses to ensure that some of its concerns, and that of the industry, were addressed.
Fáilte Ireland advocated on behalf of the industry for the following changes, which have now been accepted by the HPSC:
- seating time has been changed from 90 minutes to 105 minutes with an additional 15 minutes between bookings to allow for adequate cleaning and to ensure that customers leave and enter without mixing;
- contact tracing - businesses will now be required to collect the contact information of just the party lead instead of the contact information of the full group;
- and where two metre physical distancing is not possible, businesses are now permitted to implement one metre physical distancing in controlled environments provided other risk mitigation requirements have been met and pre-booked time slots are in place.
Fáilte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly stated, "These guidelines are intended to provide clarity to businesses so that they can reopen safely on June 29th. I would like to thank my team and officials from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport who have been working tirelessly on ensuring these guidelines are practical while adhering to public health advice."
Living Documents
Fáilte Ireland guidelines are living documents, which means as government restrictions and public health guidelines evolve, these documents will also evolve to reflect new government advice and changes to protocols when they emerge.
© 2020 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
