Plans to reopen pubs said to favour Dublin

A Tipperary publican says plans to reopen pubs are geared more towards Dublin than rural Ireland.

At present it’s planned that pubs will start trading again on August 10th but vintners are asking that this be brought forward to the end of June along with cafes and restaurants.

Denis Leahy runs a pub in Tipp Town – he says not allowing people at the bar would be a huge blow.

“One of the fundamentals of a pub is the pub counter and everybody wants to be at the pub counter where there’s the debates of the day about what’s going on and who’s dead and who’s alive and a little lie told here and there.”

“And that’s the fundamental of every pub. If there is going to be no serving whatsoever at the pub counter I think that’s unacceptable in rural Ireland. People have counters 30 feet long which would allow 10 people if you spaced them out at 3 foot.”