Cork publican: Government supports 'woefully inadequate' and not paying bills for under pressure landlords

CALLS for the Government to double the CRSS (Covid Restrictions Support Scheme) payments have been made by Cork city chairperson of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) Michael O’Donovan, who said that the current payment was “woefully inadequate.” 

The Cork city publican made his comments following the Taoiseach’s Ireland AM Interview where he said he could not rule out the possibility that pubs could remain closed until May or June.

In the interview, Mr Martin said it was a “very challenging, very difficult” time and said the Community Transmission numbers were still too high to consider any easing of restrictions next week.

Mr Martin said it would be well into next month (February) before the cabinet would be looking at that.

Following the interview, Mr O’Donovan said Public health has to be the number one priority but said a lot of VFI members were struggling to pay their bills and he felt the CRSS was not enough.

“Members have a lot of outgoings, telephone, broadband, insurance, alarm systems, all of these bills are still being paid and then you have bank loans or mortgages. The CRSS is not paying all these bills.” 

Mr O’Donovan also called for Local Authority rates to be abolished for the year in order to give members some financial footing when they are able to reopen.

The VFI Cork City chairperson also asked that the EWSS (Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme) be extended until the end of the year.