It’s a big day for Ireland’s embattled pub owners.

Later today, the Cabinet will meet to discuss whether or not the planned Phase Four reopenings, which were originally due to go ahead in July, can proceed as planned on August 10th.

Speaking on behalf of the organisation’s 3,500 members, Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) chief executive Padraig Cribben said it is ‘vital’ that members are allowed to reopen as planned after 140 days of closure.

“Any further delay would bring many publicans to breaking point. They simply can’t survive much longer,” he added.

Will Phase Four go ahead?

Phase 4 of Ireland’s Roadmap for reopening society and business would see pubs, bars, hotel bars and casinos reopen and gatherings of up to 100 people indoors and 500 outdoors allowed.

However, with Monday’s figures showing that a further 46 people have received positive test results for Covid-19, the decision hangs in the balance.

85% of the confirmed cases were in people aged under 45. Of the new cases, 32 are associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case, while five cases have been identified as community transmission.

We really need to know this decision on Tuesday we can’t go through the stress and heartache of the last time 2 weeks ago with the decision on Thursday. We need to prepare our staff and we must order stock Please give us the Guidelines @mmcgrathtd @simoncoveney @EoinBearla https://t.co/iNxbMdbSNT

— Michael O’Donovan (@michaelodono99) August 2, 2020

The largest number of confirmed new cases was in Kildare, where 15 people were diagnosed with Covid-19. There were a further eight cases in Laois, seven in Clare and five in Offaly. The remaining 11 cases are spread across nine other counties. The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

‘We should not seek to attribute blame’

“The vast majority of young people in Ireland have followed public health advice and have made very significant sacrifices to protect themselves and others.” said Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health.

“People of all ages will occasionally slip up as they learn to live safely with this virus. We should not seek to attribute blame, but rather continue to encourage one another to build on and sustain the great efforts that we have all made to date.

“We continue to urge everyone to observe the safe behaviours that we recommend such as physical distancing, washing hands regularly, wearing a face-covering where appropriate, avoiding crowds and doing all we can to protect each other.”