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Water and tap via Shutterstock

Authorities 'should offer compensation to restaurants' over water restrictions

The Restaurants Association of Ireland said that the restrictions are causing a loss to the restaurant industry of €400,000 per day.

THE RESTAURANTS ASSOCIATION of Ireland is asking local authorities to pay compensation for disruption caused to restaurants by the current water restrictions.

The RAI has said tonight that it wants the local authorities in Dublin to offer some form of compensation to restaurants that have seen business suffer because of the water restrictions in Dublin.

It was announced today that the restrictions will continue until at least Thursday.

Earlier this week, the RAI had called for the restrictions to be implemented at a later time of 9.30pm/10pm, rather than 7pm, to allow restaurants in the evening trade to have a chance to deal with the shortages.

Adrian Cummins, chief executive of the RAI, said:

In order to run a restaurant you need water – to cook food, to clean and provide to your customers. It is simple logic. Yet our words of warning have fallen on deaf ears every time this issue has arisen and unfortunately the logical approach from the restaurant industry is constantly being ignored by Local Government.

He described the restrictions as “a ridiculous and unfair imposition on these struggling businesses”, adding that Irish restaurateurs “pay the highest rates and water charges in Europe”.

Cummins said that the busiest time in the restaurant industry is at weekends. “Many of our café members are finding that they can’t even make a simple cup of coffee in the morning due to the lack of water,” he said.

“This represents a massive loss in the weekly revenue of a restaurant. These water restrictions bring about an estimated loss of revenue to the Dublin restaurant industry of €400,000 per day.”

Cummins said that he believes restaurants aren’t getting an adequate service for the price they are paying for water.

“Local Authorities either need to reduce the current water charges and rates imposed on businesses or make drastic improvements to the quality of the current services provided,” he suggested.

Earlier this evening, Dublin City Council issued a statement on the restrictions, apologising for the disruption. People living in Dublin and in parts of Kildare and Wicklow will experience lower water pressures and a loss of supply of water in their homes.

Read: Water restrictions will be in place until “at least Thursday”>

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24 Comments
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    Mute Lar G Rection
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 7:32 AM

    Should but wont. This fiasco will be used as the excuse to ramp up the water tax, under the guise of we need to pay for a top class infrastructure. Irish Water will then be fattened up for privatisation, where the fatcats will make a killing. Eircom part 2.

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    Mute gerbreen
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 12:27 PM

    Indeed and headed up by Dublin CoCo chief with the great successes such as Priory Hall under his belt.

    8
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    Mute Sean O'Sullivan
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 7:40 AM

    The local authority cant provide water to the capital city…..and we wonder why we have the poorest broadband coverage in Europe! ‘Nuff said!

    60
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    Mute Sharon Coyle
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:06 AM

    Bloody coffee shops charging up to €3 for a coffee, least they can do is make it on Ballygown for a week or so. Get over yourselves lads

    43
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    Mute Holly Kelly Byrne
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:50 AM

    As much as I agree with you, I think they need a supply of running water for steamers to make like cappuccino’s etc

    18
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    Mute Sinéad
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 10:02 AM

    The cost of the coffee beans themselves are ridiculous. That’s why coffee is at that price.

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    Mute Toddy Eire
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 1:45 PM

    a proper coffee machine will cost upwards 10k – add the cost for energy to run the machine, and to have light in the place, maintenance, heating, washing up, general hygiene, toilets, storage, crockery, furniture, all other equipment, coffee beans, rent, security, service, staff, insurances, taxes, council fees, and water, and, and, and….

    For the little that is left, the customer often sits for half hour or longer. Even when having two coffee in an hour, that amounts to a tremendous revenue of €6 per hour per customer!
    Only the big take-away shop(s) can make enough profit from coffee to actually exist from it.

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    Mute Geraldine Lawlor
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 7:40 AM

    Funny my water didn’t go off at all Last night. The previous two evenings it went off and didn’t come back till after 11 am. They should help give a break on the rates for restaurants affected. Can only imagine what this looks like to tourists.

    40
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    Mute Robert Squires
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:02 AM

    The RAI should be looking at rain water harvesting technology , it will save the restaurateur on there water bills and is a good long term investment , You never run dry when you have a RainShed Harvesting water supply ( Rainshed Harvesting.ie )

    38
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    Mute Kitty Prendergast
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 8:31 AM

    That website needs serious work. I’d be interested in one of those but can’t find out enough about it from that website.

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    Mute Robert Squires
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 8:55 AM

    Hi Kitty yes the site is been up dated it should be reddy by the new year, you can down load the brochure it has all the info and contacts , if you ring or email RainShed Harvesting the people there are great help they can advise you on what rainwater products would suit your needs. :)

    1
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    Mute Hairy lemon
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 7:36 AM

    I feel like he is making some pretty reasonable points here re the timing of the stoppages. As for a rebate… I think we all know the answer to that one!

    Still… puts the service level we can expect in focus for when we are all paying for water as other comments on other threads have mentioned. It seems likely we will pay for it but the service itself wont change.

    24
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    Mute Arthur Cronin
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 7:52 AM

    Restaurants can’t serve cappuccinos in the morning… First world problem or wha’! I think those authority people should pay restaurant owners compo for when the telly is too good and it makes their businesses suffer cos nobody wants to go out.

    20
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    Mute Brendan Palmer
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 10:00 AM

    Can’t even make a cup of coffee in the morning?
    In my house, 6pm rince out two empty 2lt plastic milk cartons. Fill with water filtered from cold tap. No problem for tea, coffee and even breakfat porridge. How much water do these people use for coffee in a couple of hours? Woddies have plenty of plastic containers that could help alleviate the problem.
    Do Restaurants not have water storage tanks?
    How did they wash dishes before dishwashers?
    Q. How many Dublin Restaurateurs does it take to change a light bulb?
    A. None, what’s wrong with sitting in the dsrk.

    The above is not to say that this water debacle is acceptable, it’s not. We need to get that water pipe from the Shannon built ASAP. This is one of those “Just do it’ things

    12
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    Mute Toddy Eire
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 1:52 PM

    you missed the point here: Paying for a product/service you don’t receive? And then even asking the customer to invest to cover for the shortcomings of the supplier? Shifting the problem to the wrong end, me thinks!

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    Mute Ronan o Chuna
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 10:25 AM

    Restaurants are obliged to have a stock of water to sustain themselves for a 24 hour period. Was the water off for longer than 24 hours at any one time? Time spent future proofing your interests instead of crying to the media may serve you better.

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    Mute dan hinchy
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:45 AM

    Whats going to happen when water restrictions happen next year when we are paying for water. Copensation, I think not. Also if im paying then I think they should have to remove the fluoroide.

    9
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    Mute ger walsh
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:09 AM

    Shut it Arthur. For god it a restaurant water is the base component to everything they do. Coild u go to work without a car if u were a country wide sale rep…. could u go to work without an issue to argue if u were a politician?…… oh shit sorry scratch that one yes u would. No to make light of it but these morons are bring “experts from the uk” to basically find out were the leak is…. irish water my ho*e…

    5
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    Mute Malachi Shanks
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 10:34 AM

    More money needs to be invested in education going by your comment….

    10
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    Mute Natalia Bujok
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 11:45 AM

    Wonder if local authorities will contribute to households sky high electricity bills since I’m doing all my washing done during the day as can’t use my appliances during the night rate tariff.

    4
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    Mute Andrew Matheson
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:26 AM

    Why should they do that??? It will only result in increased water rates! Do some people not think about these things properly?

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:40 AM

    Unfortunately many people in this country have trouble joining the dots! ;-)

    7
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    Mute ger walsh
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 8:15 AM

    that robert would fall on the restaurants them selves not the rai..a good idea but once again this is Ireland and the initial cost probably out strips the recovery I.e to long to recoup. ….

    2
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    Mute Robert Squires
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    Nov 2nd 2013, 12:09 PM

    Yes Ger May be your right it probably dose fall on to the restaurateurs but there are great advantage to having a RainWater harvesting system for the your business or your home.For instance the toilets ever time their flushed you use 9 litres of water this could be rainwater instead of water from the mains it all so gives you a back up when the water is cut.

    If a business or home owner were to install a 1280 litre RainShed Harvesting Uni-tank system this would harvest based on the average yearly rain fall and a roof catchment sizes of 23 square meters around 21000 litres of rainwater that would give you around 2340 flushes that is a lot of water ,your not using from the mains supply.

    Ger the government has a grant aid scheme in place for framers of 40% return on a rain water system with a ceiling of 10,000 this should put in place for any Irish citizen that wishes to harvest rain water after all they keep telling us how we need to conserve our water ,why not conserve our free rain water.

    3
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