‘Stop faffing around and close us’ - hotelier to government

“Stop faffing around and close us” is the blunt message to government by one of the county’s leading hoteliers.
In a wide-ranging interview, Slieve Russell general manager Tony Walker accused the government of lacking leadership in a time of crisis for the hospitality sector.
“I think they just need to close us down and put the country into lockdown as they have done in other countries. Like France this morning is in lockdown from 11am. This is a public health crisis and, at this point in time, for the care, safety and health of all our citizens, they need to put this country into lockdown.”
While the Ballyconnell hotel was open at the time of speaking to the Celt on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Walker expected to close up “over the coming days”.
When he expected to reopen was another matter but he wasn’t buying the government’s preliminary date of March 29.
“We will be closed for possibly, eight, ten, 12, 15 weeks,” he says. “I don’t know.”
Bars had the decision of whether to continue trading effectively taken out of their hands by the government’s insistence that they come under the ban on indoor gatherings of more than 100 people and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s tweeted warning that he “May seek enforcement powers from Dáil/Seanad”.
However the position of hotels and restaurants has been left much more fluid.
The effect of government recommendations on maximum numbers for public gatherings, followed by the closure of hotel bars from Sunday afternoon, was a second “major blow” for hoteliers.
The Slieve Russell experienced a similar crisis three years ago when the norovirus struck, forcing the temporary closure of the hotel.
“I’ve been here before, three years ago, so I suppose we’re a bit more experienced... We have put in more precautionary measures throughout the hotel than even the HSE have recommended and that’s because of our past experience in dealing with an outbreak of a virus.”
Mr Walker was scathing of the support that the government is providing in this crisis.
“We are on a wartime footing here, and that’s what the government need to understand. And we need support. There’s not enough support – they are not doing enough for us.”
“We need more government intervention in terms of subsidies to help our staff who are going to be laid off now – and that’s not just my staff, it’s all of the 150,000 or 170,000 people who will probably be laid off this week.”
Mr Walker notes that Regina Doherty, Minister for Employment Affairs & Social Protection, announced on Sunday a payment of €203 for four weeks.
He contends that four weeks is not long enough – government must give assurances that it will be extended - and that employers are not in a position to pay it in the first instance. The government says that employers will be able to recoup the payment, but have not specified when.
“She’s expecting the employers to pay that for four weeks,” Mr Walker said, the incredulity evident in his voice. “I have spoken to hoteliers throughout the country over the last 48 hours and I’m serious when I say this – they don’t have it. So people are going to be laid off and they don’t have this €203.”

Facing into the abyss

He adds: “We are facing into the abyss here, we don’t know how long we are going to be closed but we need assurance from the government that they will even extend this €203.”
He noted that he had received a message that the Revenue is now going to play a role in supporting businesses and employees and will provide clarity on Friday.
“Friday is too late,” he fumed.
“We need to know today because businesses are going to close today – probably on the hour as we speak. They need to be able to offer assurances to their staff as to what their future holds.”

Supports needed

He proceeded: “There should be an immediate suspension of local authority rates, while our business is closed. We need other interventions in terms of PRSI payments, VAT payments – we bailed the banks out in this country 10 years ago – now the employees in this country are going to need a bail out. They [the government] need to get up off of their backsides and stop faffing about!”
Mr Walker explains that many hotels suffer losses during January to February with the expectation of turning a profit during the tourism high season – the traditional starting gun for which was St Patrick’s Day.
“We have lost 2020,” he says. “Our tourism sector is gone.”
For the Slieve Russell Mr Walker concedes that “quarter two is wiped out completely, and possibly part of quarter three”. However, given the rescheduling of conferences he looks ahead to Q4 and the start of 2021 with a degree of optimism.
He’s also been working with brides to reschedule weddings planned for this coming spring.
“Any weddings we have booked in for March have been deferred to the rest of the year, or early next year. We are going to be talking to brides as well for May and June over the coming days, to look at them possibly pencilling in dates for either late in the year or early next year.”