The chief executive of the Vintners Federation of Ireland has said that all pubs should be allowed re-open in December because the guidelines are the same for food and non-food pubs.
Padraig Cribben said he was hearing "all kinds of nonsense" about the sizes of kitchens and chefs, but pointed out that less than a third of one percent of Covid cases have originated in the sector. "There's going to be alcohol in the pubs that do food, there's going to be alcohol in the restaurants, and there's going to be alcohol in all the domestic settings where there will be no social distancing where there will be no masks, where there will be no hand sanitization,' Mr Cribben said.