Taoiseach delivers hammer blow to 'rural' wet pubs with stark timeline on when they can reopen

The Taoiseach has warned it may be "quite some time" before Irish drinkers can enjoy a pint in their local wet pub.

Micheal Martin said today that there is "nothing I would like better right now than a pint in some rural pub in an idyllic village in the west of Ireland."

But in another blow to so-called 'wet' publicans – who have slammed the Government in recent days for refusing to allow them to open over Christmas – Mr Martin said drinking in a wet pub "is not something I will be able to participate in for quite some time yet."

Restaurants and pubs have been granted permission to welcome back customers for the month of December, as the country moves to Level Three with added features to create a semblance of normality ahead of the festive period.

But for wet pubs, the wait goes on, after the Government warned that their reopening has been linked to spiking case numbers in the past.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin (Niall Carson/PA Wire)

Speaking in the Dail today, the Taoiseach said: "That’s not the fault of Government. That’s not the fault of anybody – that’s the fault of a virus. A global pandemic."

He added: "The ultimate objective of Government is to protect human lives, and to protect those most vulnerable in our society.

"We have to make judgement calls. We have to make calls based on evidence – we’ve published the evidence.

"And it’s no fault of the publicans, and I’ve said repeatedly that I accept their goodwill in terms of their efforts to implement the guidelines."

"The bottom line is we could have taken a decision to open the pubs, but we would have done it clearly in the knowledge that we would have been contributing to an exponential rise in numbers fairly quickly."

Publican TJ McInerney of TJ Macs pub in Tipperary (centre wearing yellow tie) during a protest by publicans due to a Covid 19 closure of pubs which do not serve food at Government Buildings, Dublin (Gareth Chaney/Collins)

Yesterday, a band of wet publicans – operating under the banner of Traditional Pubs Ireland – took to the gates of Leinster House for a protest that saw them lash the Government for its handling of the pub situation.

TJ McInerney, who runs a pub in Co Tipperary, said the ongoing restrictions amount to an "assault on rural Ireland at this stage."

"This urban–rural divide – it's just not acceptable," he told the Irish Mirror.

"This is a specific attack on rural Ireland and it's an ongoing attack by Government."