Government confirm midnight curfew applies to hotel resident's bars

The new midnight curfew for bars and nightclubs also applies to hotel bars and resident bars, the Government has confirmed.

It follows the announcement Taoiseach Micheál Martin made on Tuesday 16, which re-introduced measures to curb the spike in hospitalisations and numbers of Covid-19.

The guidelines which were published to the Government's website had stated guests who were staying in hotels were exempt from the curfew, however, this is not the case now, and will surely impact wedding receptions due to be held at hotels.

The guidelines, updated today, now state:

"Closing times for all on-licensed premises, including hotel bars and hotel residents' bars, will move to midnight with all customers vacated from the premises by that time, regardless of the event taking place."

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said the move will have a significant impact on the recovery of the sector.

CEO of LVA Donal O'Keeffe said:

"Effectively this latest announcement means that the current Government strategy isn't working.

"It also needs to be acknowledged that every time the Government flicks the switch on restrictions there are consequences for people's livelihoods and the businesses that sustain those livelihoods. 

"We will have enormous difficulty retaining our staff after this latest decision", he added.