Coronavirus: Hospitality Ulster calls for NI recovery strategy

Covid-19 measures are still in place in the hospitality industry

Stormont ministers have been urged to publish a dedicated strategy to help Northern Ireland's hospitality industry recover after Covid-19 lockdowns.

Hospitality Ulster's chief executive Colin Neill said restrictions mean many businesses still cannot trade normally.

He added that some of those affected are "struggling to break even".

Mr Neill called for greater support from the NI Executive and pointed to a hospitality strategy produced by the government at Westminster.

The UK strategy was published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

"Whilst our counterparts in Great Britain are thinking about the overall transition from recovery to resilience, we here are left looking to our devolved government for direction and support," Mr Neill said.

"The slow progress in the lifting of restrictions have created a situation that allows the majority of the sector to be open, or given the choice to open, but does not allow for normal trading and therefore damaging the long-term sustainability of many businesses who are struggling to break even," he added.

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The Northern Ireland Executive is in charge of local coronavirus restrictions and has been more cautious about lifting lockdown rules than the ministers in England.

Covid-19 figures are currently rising again, with more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases reported on Thursday.

It was the highest daily figure recorded since the peak of cases in January and Health Minister Robin Swann said the spike in cases "is cause for concern".

It was early summer before businesses were allowed to serve food and drink indoors in NI

Much of Northern Ireland's hospitality industry was closed for the first four months of 2021.

On 30 April, restaurants, bars and cafes were permitted to serve food and drink outdoors, if they had the facilities to do so.

On 24 May, indoor dining resumed, but tables remain limited to a maximum of six people, or 10 if they are all from a single household.

Venues should also take measures to ensure social distancing and collect customer data for the Covid-19 contact tracing programme.

Hospitality Ulster said the industry is struggling and needs immediate and long-term intervention from the Northern Ireland Executive.

The organisation said it produced its own recovery plan a few months ago, which "mapped out the policy priorities and the economic levers that need to be pulled".

"We need a proper, dedicated, government strategy for Northern Ireland, otherwise we will continue with a piecemeal approach," said Mr Neill.

"It's hard to believe that a sector pre-pandemic contributed £2bn a year to the economy and was the fourth largest private sector employer and yet does not have, even to this day, a written down strategy or clear industry orientated pathway for recovery."