Una Mullally: The idea of physical distancing in pubs is an absolute nonsense

The publication of the Government’s roadmap for a phased reopening of Irish society and businesses offered some semblance of hope and structure for anyone wondering about the near and medium-term future. It is also aspirational, hypothetical, and for many businesses, completely impractical. This is not the fault of the Government, but we cannot frame an exceptional new reality as a new normal. There is nothing normal about the extraordinary.

Many people are missing social outlets, and many of those social outlets will be impossible to shoehorn into the awkward structure of physical distancing. For better or for worse, the Irish pub is fundamental to socialising in Ireland, and it’s hard to see how pubs, bars and nightclubs will come close to operating in any regular sense by the end of the year, if not beyond that.

It’s a massive downer, but it also provides us with the the opportunity to think differently, and listen to a diverse range of voices in the industry about what needs to happen to make their prospects just a little brighter.

Physical distancing requires physical space. Our paths need to be wider, our public space more plentiful

The idea of operating with physical-distancing rules in place is an absolute nonsense for most pubs and restaurants. On a practical level it will just not work. I imagine for many places it will make more financial sense to remain closed until physical distancing rules are over (the logical timeline for that being whenever a vaccine is rolled out, so that’s a long way away, and not completely guaranteed). With that in mind, many places will go to the wall. The situation is dire.

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More broadly, in order to cope over the next year, we need to shift our mindsets away from wishing things were over, wanting clear deadlines for the lifting of restrictions, yearning for things to go “back to normal”, and instead learn to deal with what we have and thrive within this context. So in what new ways can places operate? What does a pandemic-era pub look like? And how can businesses be saved?

Public spaces

In Vilnius in Lithuania, the city is giving over large tracts of public space to bars and restaurants so that they can better observe physical distancing with outdoor tables. Milan is taking this opportunity to re-allocate street space used by cars to cyclists and pedestrians in order to reduce air pollution, but also because physical distancing requires physical space. Our paths need to be wider, our public space more plentiful.

One of the ways to ensure a diverse entertainment and hospitality industry is to lower the barriers and costs of entry to executing good ideas

In London, the mayor Sadiq Khan launched a £2.3 million Culture at Risk Business Support Fund, a relatively small but much-needed injection of cash, which will go towards the Music Venue Trust supporting 147 grassroots music venues, 56 LGBTQ+ venues, the Creative Land Trust supporting 200 artists’ studio workspaces, and to the British Film Institute to support 25 independent cinemas.

For pubs and bars opening back up, insurance will be a major stumbling block. The insurance industry is one of the few industries that tries desperately not to fulfil what it’s there for. In Ireland, it often feels like an anti-insurance industry, penalising businesses for personal injury claims beloved of solicitors, inflating premiums with mystery figures, claiming widescale fraud even though the evidence isn’t there to back that up, and then stuttering completely when a business actually needs support when a catastrophe befalls it.

One of the ways to ensure a diverse entertainment and hospitality industry is to lower the barriers and costs of entry to executing good ideas. Opening a pub is a costly exercise steeped in bureaucracy. There needs to be greater simplicity regarding obtaining a licence. The other thing that needs to change is the licensing hours themselves. Although I don’t really believe that it will be possible at all to open up pubs even in the autumn, a new range of licensing hours could actually play a role in public safety by staggering entry and exit times.

24-hour licensing

Ireland’s restrictive licensing hours have been out of step for so long, so what better time, with the entire industry shut down, to reform and modernise them. Pubs, bars and clubs should be allowed to choose from a broad menu of licensing hours within a 24-hour period.

Unfortunately for many pubs, the economics of a place like Dublin, for example, are completely incompatible with what physical distancing requires. How do you dramatically cut down your customer numbers when places already had to operate at full tilt just to survive? Why is Dublin so different to other European cities where small bars can tick along without bar queues three-people deep? How are pubs meant to survive without a dramatically reduced VAT rate?

The questions pubs are facing feel almost endless. What do after-work drinks look like when everyone is working from home? How will Dublin’s pubs survive with no tourism? How will they cope with the collapse in corporate bookings? The logic of physical distancing also penalises smaller venues. If you don’t have the space for people to physically distance, you will not be able to operate.

In order to maintain a diverse nighttime economy, it cannot be left up to those with the greatest lobbying power, the deepest pockets, or those who just prioritise tourists. If that’s the case, we will be left with a pub landscape in the capital that is even more homogenous that what we had before the pandemic. It’s time for big ideas and big changes.