Living with Covid-19 restrictions

• Date: 19 December 2020
• Published date: 19 December 2020
• Publication title: Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland)

Tightening restrictions this side of Christmas would be in the interest of public health, potentially preventing a harsh January lockdown and the further loss of livelihood it would bring about.

The Government might want to brush up on their adages and remember the benefit of a stitch in time. - Yours, etc,

SIMON CANTWELL,

Dublin 6.

Sir, - The earlier than planned lockdown from December 28th has been vehemently opposed by the Restaurants Association of Ireland, whose President has referred to it as a devastating slap in the face ( irishtimes.com, December 18th). While this will undoubtedly be very tough on these businesses, a look at how customer-facing businesses, such as restaurants, fared during the first lockdown and re-opening supplies some much-needed perspective.

Between February and Oct ober of this year, the restaurant sector did experience a drop of 24 per cent in actual sales, compared to what they would have been if no pandemic had occurred. The drop was particularly severe in April and May, where they were down a huge 45 per cent. Yet after this there was a modest up-turn, which lasted until the second lockdown in October. Clearly the lack of international tourists (9.3 million in 2018) had a huge impact, that was only partly compensated for by domestic tourists. Overall, the drop in restaurant sales would have been far greater than 24 per cent only for the introduction by some of take-away services.

By my estimation, restaurants were most certainly not the most negatively affected. In fact, seven sectors performed even worse during the 1st lockdown and re-opening. These were Hotels (down a massive 72 per cent); Bars (down 59 per cent); Transport and Storage (down 37 per cent); Other Business Services - which includes real estate, gambling, sports...