By Sean Moriarty

Both the International Hotel and Lir Café welcomed the first guests to the new outdoor dining area in Kenmare Place on Wednesday.

AL FRESCO: The new outdoor dining area at the International Hotel. Photo: Sean Moriarty

AL FRESCO: The new outdoor dining area at the International Hotel. Photo: Sean Moriarty

READY: How the outdoor dining area looked before the furniture was installed. Photo: Sean Moriarty

COFFEE: Eleanor Daly and Rachel Snook of Lír Cafe working at the new outdoor dining area on Wednesday. Photo: Sean Moriarty

FIRST: The first visitor to the new outdoor dining area on Wednesday morning was none other than Sam Maguire.

The Fáilte Ireland Weatherproofing and Outdoor Dining Scheme, costing €604,505, partially opened to the public this week.

The first two premises to use the facility were the International Hotel and Lir Café but as an interim measure they used their own outdoor furniture while they awaited the delivery of the public furniture later the same day.

The 620 square-metre outdoor dining area consists of paving, landscaping and lighting, of which 210 square-metres will be a covered dining area.

The structure will have a total of seven outdoor dining areas – two of which were furnished and open by lunchtime Wednesday.

While local businesses will be invited to apply for licences to serve food and drinks in the dining areas, exactly half the outdoor seating will remain open to the public and consumers are free to buy products in other premises around the town.

Two smaller dining areas will bookend the project, a 21.3 metre square area near of the Ross Hotel and another one of 14.6 metres squared will be positioned outside the offices of Spillane’s Auctioneers and close to Lir Café.

The site will open between 8.30am and 10.30pm every day, and the Council staff will take charge of putting out chairs each morning and stacking them each evening.

Retractable pergolas will be in place during these hours also.

The outdoor dining areas are likely to cause divided opinion in the town. Business operators in other areas of the town centre will feel disadvantaged that others have a publicly funded facility on their door step.

Business owners in Kenmare Place are concerned about anti-social behaviour in the area especially late at night. Council employees will take charge of opening and closing the new facility each day but will expect support from businesses who are benefiting from the new facility.