THE CLAIRE BYRNE Show tonight mocked up how pubs could look if they were to return with social distancing rules. 

The show used Fair City pub McCoy’s to see what it would be like to enforce guidelines which vintners proposed to the government so they could open earlier than the planned Phase 5 (August 10) reopening. 

Under these proposals, bar areas in pubs would become ‘dispense’ areas only, with no sitting, standing, ordering, payment or drinking at the bar allowed.

Table service would be a requirement in all pubs, which would only serve a maximum of six customers seated at tables.

Live music and DJs would not be allowed and there would be possible limits on the number of people using toilets at any one time.

Speaking in a pre-recorded piece on the Claire Byrne Show this evening, Joe Duffy said he had hoped the pub would be a bit more intimate but that the measures leave a lot to be desired. 

He said: “Unless you’re coming to the pub with your crossword or a game of Boggle and all you want to do is sit in the corner on your own, so to speak, people won’t come. This is worse than I thought it would be. I hadn’t imagined it like this.

“I knew there was going to be distance but I thought it’d be much more intimate and you could have a conversation but you can’t. You can’t really have a conversation unless you bellow.”