Kildare traders query logic of extending county lockdown

It looked like any other summer's evening in Maynooth, Co Kildare on Thursday - people drinking pints on outdoor chairs and dining along restaurant terraces. But a quick look behind the veneer reveals something else entirely.

At Picaderos on the Main Street, a bustling outdoor seating area that holds up to 18 people gives way to a strikingly empty restaurant inside.

“At this stage I am just wondering if we [should] just close the door altogether,” says a dejected general manager Martin McMahon who has just learned of the recommendation by the National Public Health Emergency Team to extend Kildare’s lockdown.

“If this goes on for another two weeks or a month we are going to have to make a decision.”

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Picaderos has been surviving on its outside seating area but the weather has not been kind. Even with the awnings, Mr McMahon says, the rain finds its way in. It is one blow after another.

Their takeaway orders are down too and he wonders why north Kildare, less affected by Covid-19, is suffering by the Government imposed restrictions.

Down the road, Angela McMahon, director of McMahon’s pub restaurant, is just as demoralised and she also believes county boundaries have been applied too bluntly, sweeping aside businesses with them.

“What’s the logic? Surely geography should have been a key measure. Businesses that are nowhere near these meat plants are bearing the brunt. Why don’t they use a map?”

Like other employers, she is worried about her staff and the constant strain of not knowing when things will get better. For now, six to eight customers sitting outside are all they can rely on.

She took over the pub in February and entered lockdown in March having just given up a full-time job. “It’s very stressful,” she says.

People pass in the streets under sheets of rain. Local film maker Ciaran Hickey puts on his mask before he talks. He says there is a sense that Kildare is being singled out but he understands the public health necessity.

“If [the extension of restrictions] is a week, okay fair enough. It’s probably going to be another two weeks which is a bit extravagant,” he says, explaining that the goodwill evident in March is quickly fading.

Under a tree in the town square, locals Amy and Eric are looking for some shelter to drink their takeaway pints.

“It’s really negative; it’s affecting all the businesses; it’s affecting everyone’s morale,” Amy says. She has been unable to return to work in Dublin.

“We all feel a bit ‘Why us? How come it’s Kildare, Laois and Offaly that they are picking on?’ because even though there are clusters... you are still getting people travelling from Dublin to the midlands and bringing it out here.

“Is Kildare going to be able to survive if they keep us in lockdown?”

They have lived here for over 30 years. Eric thinks there should be stricter measures at the meat plants.

“We have got old people in our estate now, [who would] love to see their grandkids coming in,” he says.

“It’s all happening now outside the window. It’s devastated communities.”

Allan Shine, chief executive of the Kildare Chamber, who spoke to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly in advance of the NPHET decision, said: “The public health is obviously the number one priority, but the economy must be a very close second,”

“I said to the Minister that there has to be a conversation very shortly about how we can live with Covid until we get a vaccine because that conversation is definitely needed. We can’t have a scenario where businesses continually open and then are forced to close. That will have a detrimental effect, especially on the tourism and hospitality sector.”

Mr Shine noted the Minister did not express the same concern for the other two counties in lockdown - Laois and Offaly.

Fianna Fáil senator Fiona O’Loughlin, who represents Kildare South, said while local residents recognised the need to stop the spread of the virus, it was “a very difficult time for Kildare”.

“People are stressed, they’re despondent. It’s been so difficult for people, for our businesses, for our wonderful local hotels, who are absolutely top class and were just getting back into some level or normality,” she added.