A Monaghan publican who has spent €3,000 on kegs of beer has described the uncertainty around reopening his pub on July 5 as “soul destroying.”
Brian Renaghan has told how he sees his customers eating and drinking indoors just a five minute drive across the border from his own pub since last month.
It comes as the government is due to make an announcement on Tuesday afternoon about whether they will proceed with reopening as planned.
It has been mooted the government could press pause for two or even three weeks on July 5 reopening potentially leaving thousands of people out of work for longer.
Tanáiste Leo Varadkar has said it is “very unlikely” that the government would go against NPHET recommendations and Dr Tony Holohan has already expressed his concern for an increase in the transmission of the Delta variant.
Publican Brian Renaghan has hit out at the government for “kite flying” and “rumours” that pubs may not reopen on July 5 as planned.
He said he had no option but to spend thousands of euros on stocking his pub on Monday morning.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, he said: “What else could I do?
“My order had to go in this morning, that’s the reality of it and I’m not on my own, there are hundreds of publicans the same.
“The government said we were reopening on July 5 and if I didn’t have my order in on Monday morning then I wouldn’t have any drink come July 5.
“There are rumours and kite flying but I can’t run a business listening to that, that would wreck anyone’s head.”
The Dad of four said watching his customers drink inside pubs across the border, just three miles from his own bar is “lunacy.”
He said: "We closed our pubs to save our hospitals, to save our education system and all publicans did that with a heart and a half.
“We were glad to do it for the country, they were patriotic in what they did but now with the Delta variant, it is a different ball game.
“The Delta variant is going to result in numbers going up - we know that but the hospitalization numbers haven’t and what variant will come along in three month’s time?
“My fear is, if we don’t get open now then when will we get open?”
He added: “When you’re down and you keep getting kicked every time you go to get up, after a while there’s only so many kicks you can take before you say ‘frig this.’
“It really is soul destroying, you start to think to yourself is it time to move on and do something else.”
Tanáiste Leo Varadkar has said while it is not inevitable that the planned reopening of pubs and restaurants will be delayed beyond July 5 for two weeks, a longer delay may also be necessary depending on the modelling advice from NPHET.
He said: "Well I should say it is not inevitable that it will be delayed, it's also not inevitable that any pause of two or three weeks would be enough.”
He said that if a more prolonged delay is necessary, it might make sense to make an exception for fully vaccinated people to gather indoors and this would also encourage people to continue vaccination.
Speaking to RTÉ, he said the decision was "still very much up in the air" and allowing the vaccinated to follow more relaxed rules could pose problems for unvaccinated staff in business and services.
Mr Varadkar said he understood it was “frustrating” and that any further date set would still be an indicative date that will then be further reviewed in the week prior to consider the up-to-date situation.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Varadkar said: “We want to avoid having to go backwards.
“We want to avoid a situation where it is start, stop.”
“What we’ll look at is what would any delay potentially achieve?
“We know it would mean hundreds of thousands of more people would be fully vaccinated, but what impact will it have, not so much on cases but on hospitalisations and deaths because we know that the great success of the vaccine programme has weakened the link between cases and hospitalisations and death.
“It has not broken the link, but weakened the link more considerably.”
When asked if restrictions on other sectors such as guests attending weddings increasing to 50 from 25, he said “it is a possibility” but could not say for definite.
Mr Varadkar also said it would be helpful if the State’s vaccine advisory body, NIAC, had updated advice to present to the Cabinet on the use of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines on younger age groups before any decision is made on the further easing of restrictions on July 5.
However, he said he didn’t want any “undue pressure” on NIAC to get updated advice to them and the government will make a decision on Tuesday and give “total clarity” regardless.
