'This knee-jerk stuff has to stop': Cork restaurateur calls for guidance on ventilation

THE Cork chairman of the Restaurant Association of Ireland has called for a conversation to be had about the ventilation of restaurants, pubs, and bars as a means to keep the industry open during the pandemic.

Owner of the CoqBull and Cornstore restaurants Mike Ryan said that a plan is needed to deal with Covid-19 long-term, and called for guidance on ventilation for the industry into the future.

“Everyone keeps talking about ventilation, but who is doing anything about it?” he asked.

“If businesses go off on their own and get ventilation sorted out, then they’ll be told it is the wrong one, so give them a bit of guidance.

“There has to be more than saying a new variant is unpredictable — it has been unpredictable for two years now, but what is predictable is that it’s an airborne disease and what can combat it is ventilation.”

Mr Ryan said that within the industry, kitchens have proven to be “the most ventilated places you’ll get”, and that there needs to be investment put into ventilating the entire premises.

“If you go through even the hospitality industry of cases, I don’t know of any cases,” he said.

“Now, they are possibly out there, but not of chefs in kitchens transferring chef to chef, and the reason for that is you have air pumping in.

“You have to have a certain amount of air changes in a kitchen. You have big extract fans pulling air out, and you have air pulling in.

“I have heard of transmission with staff working on floors, but they’re on the floor working together.”

He said that it proves that ventilation is key in workplace environments such as restaurants, bars, and pubs.

“If businesses have to pay that bit extra for ventilation into the main parts of the restaurant, then let’s do it, and let’s have the conversation,” he said.

“Let’s not say it’s being recommended, and then shelve it.

“That’s the conversation that has to be had, and this knee-jerk stuff has to stop.”