It will be hard to see the Christmas lights glowing this year; Richard Guiney raises concerns in the context of Level 5

Last updated Oct 21, 2020

There are over the possibility of Dublin City celebrating their annual Christmas lights this holiday season.

Richard Guiney, Chief Executive of Dublin Town asked the public to be in touch with the Irish stores and be their customer in order to support the business during Christmas period.

All non-essential retail stores must be closed for a period of six weeks because of the Level 5 restrictions.

Richard Guiney, while addressing in a RTE programme said that if it looks like the period of restrictions goes on further than December 1, the business community will probably wonder if it’s worth their while paying for putting up the Christmas lights.

‘But there’s no decision made on that and we’ll certainly consider people’s views.’ He added.

He said that the business community won’t be benefited if there is not any kind of business trade during this year’s Christmas. At present no decisions have been takes, Guiney said that they will take the decision with respect to the community’s opinion.

“We’re very concerned. Our members have obviously had a very difficult year in 2020 and frankly, a lot of them were looking to have a good Christmas in order to make it into 2021 and obviously that’s not going to be the case now, so we’re very concerned that we’re going to see quite a number of closures,” he said.

He also admitted that vendors do have a fear regarding this year’s business, if they started investing more money and business doesn’t come as per plan, then it will end up in a huge loss.

‘We’ve got vacancy rates at 10% on the likes of Henry Street and Grafton Street at the moment so, you know, we’re heading into that territory.’ He added.

He also said that it will be a great help if people could choose Irish shops for Christmas shopping’s.

“If you’re purchasing online, don’t google by the product, but by the shop that you want to keep in business because our shops will absolutely depend on that,” he said.