The future of UCD Student Bar has been thrown into doubt as a number of staff members are expected to accept redundancy next week.
Negotiations between the bar committee and the staff began in June in an effort to reach an agreement that would allow the establishment to become economically viable. These talks have been ongoing up to this point. Earlier this week however, sale a number of staff, treatment some of whom have worked in the bar for up to twenty-five years, cure decided to accept a redundancy package.
Many of the long-term staff at the bar have expressed their disappointment with the outcome of the negotiations, one stating, “we were all there quite a while. The last thing you want to do, particularly in this [economic] climate is give up a job… That’s the last thing you want, to walk away from having a job, but that’s the way it went.”
A member of staff, who has worked at the bar for eighteen years, spoke of his sadness at leaving UCD, saying, “down the years you’d have met a few people, even people that had left and went on, and they’d have come back and dropped in to say hello… People have been back around and they’ve always dropped back into the bar to see how things are going. You’d miss that.” He went on to say, “the decision was out of our hands.”
News of the possible closure of the bar has shocked many students who now fear that there will be no bar on campus come first week of term. The new bar in the Student Centre will not be opened until the end of September at the earliest.
Rachel Breslin, President of UCD Students’ Union spoke to the College Tribune on the matter. “The Committee…embarked on a process of closing the bar for the summer and tasking an appointed representative to make the bar viable. The process hasn’t been finished yet. We’re trying to resolve a difficult situation. It’s not an easy one for any bar, particularly this bar, because everyone’s seen from the figures already, that it’s making a big loss”, she stated.
James Grannell
