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Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has suggested that people may be able to return to the offices and students to campuses in September.
Speaking on his way into a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, Mr Ryan said he expected digital travel certificates to go ahead as planned on July 19th, but that the rest of society would be opened across July and August with the resumption of full public transport among the items due next month.
When asked when he expected indoor dining to resume, Mr Ryan reiterated that will depend on data coming back from the UK about the levels of hospitalisations as a result of the Delta variant.
Hospital Report
Mr Ryan was speaking before the Department of Health reported 397 new cases of Covid-19. The number of patients being treated in hospital is 54, with 16 in ICU.
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The Minister said the Government would not be throwing the doors open as they are doing in the UK but that health data from the UK would be significant in determining how plans could evolve.
“We’re going to get everyone vaccinated, back dining, able to socialise – it will just take a bit of time,” he said. “It’s not going to be a huge change, it’s going to be step by step.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar later acknowledged that there could be “teething problems” with the digital Covid travel cert, but said he hoped it would be ready to be issued at the same time as all other European Union member states.
Mr Varadkar said those who received their vaccine jabs at a designated centre would receive their certificates by email, while those who received them in other settings such as GP surgeries or pharmacies would receive them by letter. All would have a QR code.
Mr Varadkar said that they would be sent to those who had recovered from Covid in the past nine months or who were fully vaccinated.
A call centre would be available to deal with queries, he said, and delays were anticipated.
He said that the authorities here would accept that people who had proof of negative PCR tests prior to travel would not be asked to quarantine.
He agreed that this did not adhere to the advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) but added that the Government had agreed with the EU to introduce the certificate and would do so.
He also indicated that given the tenor of Nphet advice it would be difficult to see antigen testing forming part of the digital certificate for indoor hospitality. He said that a memo would come before Cabinet next week but he could not say if it would be ready for the target date of July 19th.
At a press conference in Dublin Castle earlier, Mr Varadkar said he did not agree with the decision in Britain to implement the total reopening of society.
“The prospect of packed theatres in the West End and nightclubs being packed to the rafters concerns me to be quite honest. It will have an impact for Ireland.”
He said he was not taken aback by the news.
Mr Varadkar, later speaking on RTE News at One, advised people who were travelling to give themselves plenty of time as there could be delays at the airport initially.
“Do your planning” he advised people as they could be dealing with two sets of rules – in Ireland and in the country to which they were travelling.
The digital travel cert was a EU system and Ireland would be adhering to the EU regulations, he added. However, he advised that people who were not vaccinated should avoid international travel.
Dining
When asked if the travel cert could be used for a return to indoor dining, Mr Varadkar said such a proposal was under consideration as there would not be the capacity for hundreds of thousands of tests to be carried out.
No test was as good as a vaccine, he added.
The new expert group on antigen testing, headed up by Prof Mary Horgan would be advising the Government on access to indoor activities, he said. “We will be taking their advice.”
Mr Varadkar said he could not “say for certain” that the Government would be in a position to implement plans for the re-opening of hospitality indoors by July 19th.
Government officials met hospitality industry representatives on Monday and discussed options for reopening indoor dining and drinking.
Sources said six options were discussed, including using antigen or PCR testing and the use of a Covid certificate or pass for people to prove they have been vaccinated or had recovered from the virus in the last nine months.
As many as 1.8 million people who are fully vaccinated or have recently recovered from Covid-19 would be able to avail of indoor hospitality services, the meeting was told.
However, testing as a means to access indoor hospitality services was said by one source to be “highly unlikely” to form part of the immediate solution.
Ministers are expected to be told on Tuesday that printed vaccine records will be sent out by post and arrangements for a “verifier app” and a call centre are being put in place to operate the system.
Anger is growing within the hospitality sector about the delay in opening inddoor dining, which was supposed to reopen on Monday.
Business owners
On its Twitter account, the Bank Bar restaurant in Dublin posted a video pointing out the measures it had taken to ensure safe dining, including two deionising machines, newly installed vents and an air conditioning unit.
Restaurant owner Alan O’Reilly said the continuing ban was “ridiculous” and staff in the restaurant were being discriminated against in comparison with hotel staff.
"Everywhere else in Europe is able to trade indoors. We are not. If Micheál Martin and the others would like to tell us why we are different from everybody else, we'd love to hear from them," he said.
Paul Gallagher, the general manager of Buswells Hotel, said despite the fact that indoor dining could go ahead in hotels, they were not seeing any business as people were not eating out and there were no walk-ins.
Mr Gallagher said the hospitality sector will have to embrace a Covid certificate if it is the price of staying open.
Some in the hospitality sector have said it is unworkable and unfair on unvaccinated people, but Mr Gallagher countered: “We have to make it work. We simply don’t have a choice. The choice is quite stark. Don’t make it work and you can’t open your doors. The industry has been shown to have the capacity to work new procedures as we did with smoking.”
He said Buswells was operating at 22 per cent capacity and hotels need walk-in trade as much restaurants or pubs. The business could not survive without continuing Government supports, he added.
Paul Lenihan, who owns three gastro pubs, said there was a "desperate need" for the sector to reopen.
Outdoor dining was not possible for all premises and there were many who could not physically reopen because of space issues, Mr Lenihan said. The sector should reopen “by any means possible” but only if it could be done in a safe manner for everyone, he said, adding customers wanted to feel safe.
Sinead Lambert Barrasso from the Sol Rio restaurant in Westport said a small outdoor dining space given by the local authority had seating for only 12 and was not viable, adding neither was a takeout service.
She said she did not know how the vaccination cert was expected to work and that it was discriminatory if she could go to a restaurant for a meal but her 20-year-old son, who was not yet vaccinated, could not do so.