Cabinet to meet on Monday to agree plans on reopening indoor hospitality

The Government is to set to meet tomorrow to agree on plans for the reopening of indoor services in restaurants on pubs.

A Cabinet meeting has been scheduled to consider legislation to bring in a system of verifying that customers have been fully vaccinated.

It is understood that a plan to allow children to accompany vaccinated parents into restaurants and pubs as part of a ‘family bubble’ are included in the proposals.

The date for indoor services to resume in such businesses is likely to be between July 19th and July 26th.

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Sources said no decision has been made on the date yet and it is not certain that this will be set at tomorrow’s incorporeal meeting of the Cabinet.

The meeting is scheduled to take place to consider the legislation that will have to pass before the Dáil’s summer recess which is due to begin on Friday.

Officials have been working over the weekend to finalise the legislation. If the reopening was to happen at the same time as international travel on July 19th it would have to pass all stages of the Oireachtas and be signed into law by President Michael D Higgins with connected regulations in place by the end of the week.

The National Public Heath Emergency Team (Nphet) advised the Government to postpone the reopening of indoor hospitality services due to concern over the spread of the highly admissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

Workable and enforceable system

Nphet recommended that it should not resume until a workable and enforceable system for proving a person has been vaccinated is introduced.

It is expected that the EU’s Digital Covid Certificate for international travel will be adopted for use in the hospitality industry here to prove vaccination or recent recovery from the virus at the doors of pubs or restaurants.

Business owners would be able to use a smartphone App to check the person’s cert. Sources suggested that negative PCR and antigen tests could be used to gain access to indoor hospitality in later phases of the reopening but further scientific advice is needed, as well as an examination of testing capacity for such measures to be introduced.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland welcomed the news that Cabinet will meet tomorrow to sign off on plans for reopening the hospitality sector.

Its chief executive Adrian Cummins said, “we are within touching distance of reopening indoor hospitality which will allow for 180,000 employees return to work”.

“It’s imperative we build on the progress to date over the weeks ahead. The Government must now rollout an national information campaign for consumers and hospitality businesses,” he said.