One of Dublin's biggest pub groups has been forced to lay off 300 staff due to the uncertainty over when the capital's lockdown restrictions will be lifted.
The Chawke Pub Group, which consists of nine pubs, employs around 400 people and owns and operates a number of pubs in the city.
The group, headed by well-known publican Charlie Chawke, closed the doors of its seven Dublin bars after the county moved to Level 3 restrictions earlier this month.
These restrictions were set to remain in place until October 9 but fresh doubt was cast on this today when Acting Chief Medical Officer said the "significant improvement" in the rate of coronavirus infections in the capital had not yet been achieved.
David Chawke, who runs the chain's Bank Bar, hopes the lay-offs will be temporary.
“I don't know what our staff are meant to do," he told Independent.ie.
"We were told we’d be able to reopen on October 12 and now they’re putting a different spin on it. People have bills and mortgages to pay."
“The biggest issue is we used to get paid or reimbursed under the wage subsidy scheme five days later, so we paid staff and got the money back days later."
The pandemic has sparked a crisis in the hospitality sector with so-called "wet pubs" in Dublin closed for over six months.
The Licensed Vintners Association, which is the representative body for Dublin's publicans, made a grim statement about the state of the industry in the capital.
They said: "There were about 12,500 jobs in Dublin pubs before this crisis. We estimate that well over 90% of those jobs are now gone."
