Pubs and restaurants can look forward to another summer of outdoor dining when street furniture fees are officially abolished tomorrow.
The boon for hospitality will be confirmed when Minister Darragh O'Brien signs a special Order after a Dáil committee rubberstamps regulations at their meeting on Thursday morning.
This will lead to another ‘Mediterranean-style’ tourist season - for locals too - with people eating and drinking outside all across the country like they did last summer and autumn.
Irish pubgoers and diners embraced a new way of living last summer when we moved our socialising outdoors to accommodate new Covid social distancing rules.
It was advised by health experts that it would be safer if we met up outside and this led to the hospitality sector adapting and customers following.
And it led to great savings for the hospitality businesses too, with fees exemptions running into thousands of euro for those establishments offering outdoor dining.
A source close to Mr O’Brien told the Mirror: “The licence fee for outdoor dining tables and chairs which was waived last year (2021) is going to be waived again this year with a view to helping restaurants & pubs to continue to recover from Covid & the affect it has had.
Planning Regulations to waive the fees have to be approved by the Oireachtas before they can be signed by the Minister and come into effect.
“They will confirm the necessary approval which will then enable the Minister to sign the Regulations.”
She added: “Relevant premises still have to apply to their local authority for the outdoor dining licence but the normal fee that applies is going to be waived.”
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