Trinity’s Pavilion Bar (the Pav) will not re-open until Dublin is placed on level-two restrictions or lower, which probably will not happen until next year, its chairman said this evening.
The bar closed on March 13th after the pandemic hit Ireland and the country was forced to shut down.
Speaking at the Dublin University Central Athletics Committee (DUCAC) AGM this evening – which was held virtually – Pav chairman Cyril Smyth said: “In essence we made no income from the 13th of March through to the end of our financial year [in June].”
It was hoped that the bar would open in September, but “under level three this would not have been possible”, Smyth said. Dublin was moved to level-three restrictions in September.
“We could have operated under level two”, Smyth said, “but it was not possible under level two as you could not serve alcohol without a substantial meal. You have to spend the government figure [of] nine euro on food.”
“Realistically”, he said “until we get back to level two, operating the Pav profitably is not going to happen until next year”.
The Pav typically makes 35 to 36 per cent of its gross annual income in the three-month period from April to June, Smyth said.
Before the coronavirus hit, the Pav was on track for its highest turnover in several years, Smyth said.
In June, Smyth confirmed to The University Times that the Pav would not re-open on March 29th, when pubs that serve food were permitted to begin trading again.
Smyth wrote in an email statement that opening the Pav was “low down in College’s priorities”.
Smyth said that the bar was “thinking through issues that will be involved such as the social distancing in the new ‘normal’ and how this can be managed”.
“Let there be no doubt that DUCAC and I wish the Pavilion Bar to reopen as soon as we get a green light”, Smyth said. “It’s contingent on a lot of factors going well.”
Smyth said that the fully audited budgets were not yet available, and was therefore unable to give a run through of the bar’s finances at the AGM.
