The chef / proprietor of a Michelin-recommended restaurant in Galway has said clarity regarding reopening is urgently needed for the hospitality sector.
Jess Murphy's Kai restaurant has been closed since last December.
And while the menu from the last day of service is still on display at the front of the building, a newer notice also tells customers that bookings can be made for lunch and dinner sittings from 6 July.
Inside, Ms Murphy and her husband David have spent recent weeks getting ready for that date. Supplies have been arriving in recent days, orders have been made, rosters are ready and bookings are being taken.
But the uncertainty about what the coming weeks hold has thrown everything "up in air".
Ms Murphy said the sector needs to know what’s happening, as soon as possible.
"It costs so much money and takes so much effort to open a restaurant again, you can’t just turn it on like a light" she said.
"My gut is telling me - and I think any person with cop-on knows - we will be closed until August. That’s a guess on my behalf, but that’s my feeling."
But regardless of what happens, not knowing where the business stands right now is a matter of huge concern, she said. Not just for the restaurant owners, but also for their staff, who are waiting on service to resume.
"These are people’s lives and these are people’s livelihoods – I mean Kai is small and we have 22 staff members and they’re signing off the PUP, putting themselves at risk and coming back to a job that might not be there for them" at the start of July.
Ms Murphy said that whatever course of action the Government decides on Kai will be "out of pocket", but that the sector - and more importantly the people working in it - need to be treated with respect.
The longer the uncertainty continues, the greater the upheaval to restaurant owners, staff and suppliers, she added.
