Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Deputy Grealish's. In my own constituency, as is the case for many other Deputies, the issue of whether pubs can remain viable in the long term is a cause for concern Even if they do reopen under the next phase, when one takes into account the social distancing requirements, for a lot of pubs, especially smaller ones, reopening might not be feasible. Pubs and bars employ more than 50,000 people and we need a package to support publicans to get them over the next 12 months, by which time a vaccine will hopefully be available, and enable them to remain viable. Otherwise, we will have mass closures of bars and pubs, which are needed in our communities.

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