A Waterford bar and nightclub manager has branded the current situation around late-night restrictions an ‘omnishambles’.
Donal O’Brien from the Reg in the city manages a venue that doubles as a bar and a nightclub, meaning numbers can fluctuate throughout the night across both sections.
It’s as calls continue for the government to rethink its policy on new rules for the reopening of nightclubs.
Speaking to Beat News, O’Brien says it’s putting bar and nightclub staff under unnecessary pressure.
"The lack of clarity in the last week has put huge pressure on me and my staff in terms of enforcing temporary guidelines over the weekend.
"All this uncertainty breeds misinformation and causes anxiety for us, we're trying to run a business and we still don't know what conditions we're running that business under.
"To say Minister Martin and her department are incompetent is a huge understatement."
One of the changes will see those attending a club having to purchase their tickets online at least an hour in advance of turning up at the door.
Donal says that is simply unworkable in his venue, which serves as a bar as well as a nightclub.
"If a nightclub has a capacity of a thousand people, and it opens at 10 o'clock in the evening because it's a nightclub, well that's fine because you know at 10 o'clock it's empty.
"But for me, I could already have 500 in the premises, or 250, or 750, so I have to live manage ticket availability on a system and an app that we've never used before."
