It is hoped the extra half an hour opening time for restaurants can help reduce house parties.

The new closing time was announced last night along with a range of new restrictions as the Government said the country is at a ‘tipping point’ in the fight against COVID-19.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Adrian Cummins CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) said the change will allow people to finish off their night in comfort.

“It is an extra 30 minutes,” he said. “It gives us the opportunity to have the final sitting in an orderly manner and it kind of helps with the issue around house parties as well where the, let’s call it the night cap, will be in the restaurant as opposed to the house party.

“That is what we put forward to Government and they accepted it.”

A man sitting among empty seats outside the Metro Cafe in Dublin City Centre, 16-03-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

He said restaurants could “see very clearly” that the earlier the closing, the more likely people were to continue their night elsewhere.

“If it was a Friday night or a Saturday, everybody is going to think, well, there is an extra hour of the night here, will we go to somebody’s house or apartment for a nightcap?

“So, we put forward that proposal. That and the economic contribution of the final sitting in a restaurant got us the extra 30 minutes.”

Work from home

Under the new guidelines, people are being asked to work from home wherever possible and avoid public transport.

All sporting events must now be played behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, officials are in talks with the Attorney General about handing Gardaí greater powers to enforce the rules.

Mr Cummins said the new work form home advice will have a serious impact on restaurants and cafés in urban areas.

“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 winter time, that is gone,” he said.

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

Restaurants

He said restaurants in Dublin are down around 60% in turnover.

“They are down worse when you go into the city centre itself and when they say to every worker, work from home [things will drop further],” he said.

“We put forward a strategy for getting people back to work, public servants, maybe one day a week or two days a week but there is no strategy in place, it is just everybody work from home now until September 13th.

“But come September 13th, if the cases come down, we will be asking the Government to put forward a return to work strategy for public sector officials so we can get the economic activity in our urban centres into the future.

“If we have to live with this virus, we have to take on board those measures.”

You can listen back here: