Customers must also keep one-metre social-distancing in the queue for the bar, under new rules published last night.
Spotchecks will be carried out - and non-complying venues could face closure, a 5,000 euro fine, and a year in jail.
Director of the Factory Night Club in Waterford, Neill Kelly, says the government's guidelines are 'absolute insanity':
"I think they've already hampered the industry enough. I think they could have come to the people who know what they're doing. Even to allow full capacity into a nightclub and then say that you need one metre of social distance in the queue at a bar and an employee serving a supervising the queue. That's literally impossible to do. So if a nightclub has a capacity of 900, and you're allowed to 900- how is there going to be one metre distance at the bar?"
