Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae has said the uncertainty over the reopening of the rest of the country’s pubs is just “rural Ireland being hit once again.”

It comes after the acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said it was “too early to say” whether pubs that don’t serve food would be permitted to open as planned on Monday.

He said officials would need to monitor the latest COVID-19 data before making a decision on moving to Phase Four of reopening.

Pubs have reacted angrily to the news, warning that they need clear guidelines and time to bring in stock if reopening is to ahead.

Social Distancing measures in place in Toners Pub on Baggot Street in Dublin, 30-06-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, Deputy Healy-Rae said the pubs that were permitted to reopen two weeks ago were “mostly in urban places.”

He said that has led to crowds of people gathering in larger towns.

“What has been happening now in the last two weeks since some pubs opened in Killarney, all the young fellas from these areas are converging in Killarney,” he said.

“They’re travelling into Killarney and, whether they can get in or not, there is a difficulty because what we have now is half the pubs open and the other half of them not – it is very unfair.

“They should have been all opened together and spread out. If they are talking about social distancing sure what they have done is they have brought them in together.”

File photo of Grogans pub in Dublin. Photo: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Deputy Healy-Rae, who runs a pub in Kilgarvan, said Dr Glynn may be a “capable health officer” but warned he “obviously he knows nothing at all about running pubs.”

“We need time to order stock and to do all the normal things - not to mind maybe satisfy other requirements or guidelines or directions that we haven’t even got yet," he said.

"We don’t even know what they are. Do they know what they are or what they are going to be? It is not fair.

“To me anyway, this is rural Ireland being hit once again and, it looks to me, they don’t really care whether they let us open or not. It is not fair because a publican traditionally has been the most regulated place to get alcohol.”

Pictured (LtoR) Barman Patt Garrett and David Fagan with Social Distancing in place in Toners Pub on Baggot Street, 30-06-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

He said publishing guidelines on Thursday or Friday of this week is ‘not adequate and not fair.’

“They are not thinking of us at all,” he said. “Today is Tuesday and there are only six days left. It is not fair to the all the family-run businesses.

“By-and-large, the ones that are still shut are family run businesses and you would have to bring in staff to help them and you would have to organise that.

“Its way easier to close a pub than it is to open it. It was tough enough to close them and we did what was asked of us and we behaved."

He said the State was not being fair to pubs that "obeyed all the rules " during months of lockdown.