8pm curfew for hospitality and live events: government announce new restrictions

An 8pm curfew will be introduced for pubs, restaurants and other indoor venues in Ireland, under new restrictions announced by the government tonight.

Indoor events must also end by 8pm, and are capped at 50% capacity or a maximum of 1,000 people. The effect of this will be to bring live music events grinding to a halt, adding to the woes of a sector that has been repeatedly hammered over the course of the past 21 months.

"With Omicron it is also becoming clearer that vaccines on their own aren't going to be enough to get through this wave safely," Taoiseach Michael Martin said in his address to the nation this evening. "There needs to be a very strong and immediate reduction in contacts."

The new measures will come into effect from this coming Sunday, December 19, and will be in place until January 30th, with a review of the situation set to happen on January 11th.

While the decision to force pubs – including venues – and restaurants to close at 8pm is the most damaging measure, there are other restrictions that are also going to hit the music sector.

Weddings – frequently an area where musicians earn good money – are to be limited to 100 people and end at midnight, under the proposals agreed by Cabinet. The likelihood is that far fewer bands will be employed as a result.

The number of spectators attending sporting events is also to be limited to 50% capacity, or a maximum of 5,000 people.

There are no changes to the numbers allowed for household visits, which will remain at four households and there are also no changes to domestic travel for the Christmas period.

Close contacts with a booster vaccination must restrict their movements for five days, while un-boosted close contacts must restrict for ten days. The requirement to have a PCR or antigen test before arrival in Ireland will be kept, despite NPHET saying that it could be scrapped.

"The news will be deeply disappointing for many" said the Taoiseach as he closed his address. "It is not the news I wanted to bring you. nor is it the news you wanted to hear. However, and this is important: the truth is that we are in a much better place than we were this time last year."

Ahead of the new closure time being introduced for the hospitality industry, Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland said that he feared "60,000 hospitality staff will be let go five days before Christmas." It is hard to imagine anything different now that the decision has been announced.

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has said an 8pm closing time is "closure in camouflage" and that most pubs will now be unable to viably operate and will have to close anyway.