Restaurants can reopen safely during the coronavirus pandemic by limiting diners to four people over 10 square metres, but would need a range of State supports, the industry has said.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) has proposed to the State’s public health emergency team in a submission that restaurants, cafes and gastro bars open again by following social distancing guidelines under World Health Organisation (WHO) rules for restaurants during the pandemic.

The industry group has said that tables can be arranged so that the distance from the back of one chair to the back of another would be no more than a metre and that guests face each other from a distance of at least one metre.

It is proposed that alcohol would only be sold with a meal in a restaurant premises for the duration of the coronavirus, and that alcohol would only be served to customers waiting to be served a meal, during the meal or within 30 minutes after the meal has ended.

The sector’s representative group has told the National Public Health Emergency Team that it would not be financially viable for many restaurants to reopen under these health restrictions because of the limited number of paying customers permitted in the restaurants.

As a consequence, the industry wants direct financial support for restaurants and small and medium-sized businesses in the sector by reducing the Vat rate to zero.

Restaurateurs are also seeking support grants, rent protection for commercial tenants and the write-offs of local authority rates until a Covid-19 vaccine is found.

The industry is also looking for any personal protective equipment (PPE) that “may be deemed necessary” to be able to reopen and operate safely.

The RAI is working with the highest levels of government on a plan to reopen restaurants, cafes and gastro bars “in the safest manner possible using guidelines from public health experts”, the association’s chief executive Adrian Cummins said.

Food production

The association has said that where restaurants cannot maintain the WHO-recommended distance of at least one metre between fellow workers in food production, measures to be considered include staggering work stations on processing lines.

Restaurants should also be provided with personal protective equipment such as face masks, hair nets, disposable gloves, clean overalls and slip reduction work shoes for staff.

“The use of PPE would be routine in high-risk areas of food premises that produce ready-to-eat and cooked foods,” the industry group says in the submission to State health officials. “Where staff are dressed in PPE it is possible to reduce distance between workers.”