Venturing out for coffee, lunch or dinner this weekend?

As part of a number of new measures being implemented in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19, the Government has announced extra rules for diners, who will now be required to wear a mask before and after they sit at a table for their meal.

Up until this week, there was no requirement for customers to wear a mask inside a restaurant or a pub serving food. From now on, customers are advised to wear a mask while entering and leaving the premises and whenever they leave their table, such as during trips to the bathroom.

According to a Government statement on the changes, the new regulations will be bolstered by “an enhanced level of enforcement to ensure that workplaces, venues and organisers of activities adhere to the guidelines”.

The new guidelines will remain in place until September 13th, 2020 at the earliest.

Here are the key things to remember: 

• All customer-facing staff must wear face coverings and all customers must wear face coverings until seated and again on departure.
• Restaurants and cafes (including pubs that serve food and hotel restaurants) will now be required to close by 11.30pm.
• Restaurants are required to keep contact details to support contact tracing.
• A maximum of six customers must be seated at a table, with no seating allowed at the bar and table service only.
• No formal or informal events or parties should be organised in these premises.
• All tables must have hand sanitiser.

Adrian Cummins, the CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland said his organisation welcomed the 30 minutes of extra opening time, but said that the Government advice on working from home will have a serious impact on city eateries.

“With people working from home, all of that business that is in the city centres in Dublin or large urban areas like Cork, coming into the wintertime, that is gone,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“Businesses are on their knees at the moment if you are not in a high tourism destination area.”