The Irish Exhibition Organisers Association has welcomed the new Government guidelines announced on Tuesday, which state under organised indoor gathering, that "For very large purpose built event facilities (for example: stadia, auditoriums, conference or event centres) specific guidance will be developed with the relevant sectors to take account of size and different conditions for larger events".

Seasonally adjusted goods exports increased by €78 million (+1%) to €12,919 million in July 2020 compared with June 2020, according to preliminary figures.

Seasonally adjusted goods imports increased by €1,464 million (+22%) to €8,120 million leading to a decrease of €1,386 million (-22%) in the seasonally adjusted trade surplus to €4,799 million in July 2020 compared with the previous month.

​The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has described the Government’s decision to further delay the reopening of pubs in Dublin as being an “empty gesture, backed by hollow words from a Government that broke its commitment to non food pubs again.”

One week ago the Government had committed to not singling out the non food pubs from other businesses, stating that if there were any regional restrictions it would affect other businesses and not solely pubs. Yet seven days later the Government has ignored that commitment and has set out separate treatment for non food pubs in Dublin who must remain closed despite the capital being kept at Level 2 in the Government’s new medium term strategy.  

​Ireland is moving from a short-term emergency response approach to a medium-term approach to managing risk and repairing the damage that COVID-19 has inflicted on society.

A Framework for Restrictive Measures has been developed to help us to go about our daily lives as much as possible, while managing the behaviour of the virus.

Current status

• Ireland is currently at Level 2 of the Plan for living with COVID-19.
• However, there are additional measures in place in Dublin.

The latest information, advice and guidelines will be published here and updated daily.

​Research published today finds that around two-in-five micro-sized firms and one-in-two small and medium-sized firms faced a revenue shortfall (where revenue fell below expenditure on a monthly basis) in the main COVID-19 lockdown period from March to June 2020. The total shortfall across SMEs over this period is estimated to be between €6bn and €10bn. Firms had some cash resources built up prior to the pandemic that they are likely to have been used to bridge part of the gap, but this would not be sufficient to cover all losses. Even after their own resources are used, between €2.2bn and €4.3bn of a shortfall was accumulated over these three months.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland has called for urgent government action to deal with greed driven commercial landlords, who are continuing to charge their tenant businesses full rent rates during the current pandemic and economic crisis.
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Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, said: “We are calling on the government to issue a code of practice and introduce “Fast Track” arbitration service to help with a speedy resolution of disputes between restaurants / hospitality businesses and landlords. It’s obvious that greedy landlords are not playing their part in the pandemic which is causing huge distress for business owners especially restaurant owners.”

The two representative bodies for pubs across Ireland have welcomed the announcement that non food pubs will be allowed to reopen, saying “it’s about time”. The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) said the non food pubs will have been closed for 189 days – more than 6 months – by the time they get to reopen.

​Pubs were the first part of the economy to close at the beginning of the crisis, with pubs across the country closing their doors in the interest of public health on 15th March 2020.

The webinar is free for companies who are members of EFCEM national associations. It will feature two presentations from experts in the field of connectivity followed by a question and answer session.

Date: Monday 28th September 2020
Time: 14.00hrs - 15.30hrs

​The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) says the introduction of a new law, which states that restaurants and pubs serving food must now record all individual food orders and keep that data for 28 days, is “bureaucracy gone mad” and will add a huge burden to already struggling businesses.