Varadkar says delays to reopening of indoor hospitality ‘not inevitable’

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said it is “not inevitable” that indoor services in restaurants and pubs will be delayed beyond July 5th due to concerns over the Delta variant.

Speaking in Dublin on Monday, he said the Government is waiting on advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) about the scheduled easing of restrictions, including the reopening of indoor hospitality, amid fears of the spread of the more highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

Nphet and the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) are meeting on Monday to consider, respectively, the pandemic situation in the State and changes to curbs on the provision of vaccines to people aged under 50.

Ministers will discuss their advice on Tuesday at a Cabinet meeting that has been brought forward following calls for clarity from the hospitality industry.

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin said on Sunday the Government would need advice from both expert groups before making a final decision on whether to further ease curbs.

Under the Government’s reopening plan, July 5th was to see the resumption of indoor dining and drinking, 50 people being permitted to attend a wedding and four households allowed to gather indoors.

Coalition leaders are due to meet on Monday evening. However, this meeting may be switched to a Cabinet Covid-19 sub-committee meeting to consider the Nphet advice if it is ready.

‘Very reasonable’

Mr Varadkar said there was a “very reasonable” request from the hospitality industry that the decision on indoor services - which had not been due until Thursday - be brought forward.

“They have to engage employees, people have to come off PUP, they have to order supplies. So they’ve asked us that we bring the decision forward so we’re going to do that,” he said. “We will make a decision tomorrow.”

Asked whether a delay is inevitable or not that indoor dining at pubs and restaurants will be delayed Mr Varadkar said: “Not inevitable is correct.”

He also later told RTÉ Radio: "It's also not inevitable that any pause of two or three weeks would be enough."

He added: “We heard earlier today one of the members of the modeling group saying that a two or three-week delay would only reduce cases by 10 per cent so it may be the case that a longer delay may be necessary if there’s a delay at all.

“The reason why none of these things are inevitable is because no decision has been made,” Mr Varadkar said.

At the event in Dublin, the Tánaiste also said that even if there is a postponement there is a “possibility” that other planned easing of restrictions like allowing 50 people at weddings and four households to gather indoors could still go ahead.

However, he stressed that Nphet has not yet delivered its advice.

Mr Varadkar previously highlighted that while there are “very good people” on Nphet, they come from medical or civil service backgrounds. When he questioned the team’s lockdown advice in October, he said its members did not have to had to face the prospect of making a PUP claim or been a business owner telling a person they are losing their job.

Asked on Monday if, as Minister for Enterprise, he would like to see Nphet and Niac make decisions more quickly to offer businesses certainty, he said: “The short answer is no, because we did always indicate that there will be a three or four week gap between decisions and what we give is an indicative date”.

‘Press the green button’

He said people “know the process well by now”, that the week before a date for reopening the epidemiological situation is assessed and the Government decides whether or not to “press the green button”.

“It’s not for Nphet to make quicker decisions - if anyone should make quicker decisions it’s the Government,” he said. “We’re the ones who make the decisions, obviously on foot of their advice.”

He said Niac’s role is different as it considers the use of vaccines and these are not “political decisions”.

Mr Varadkar was asked if the Government is happy to make a decision on the July 5th reopening in the absence of Niac advice that could accelerate the vaccination programme if AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are approved for use among younger people.

“We will make a decision without the advice if we have to,” he said, adding that the hospitality industry needs to know in advance because of issues around staffing and ordering supplies.

Later, on RTÉ Radio, Mr Varadkar said it would be “very difficult” for the Government to go against whatever advice that Nphet issues on the reopening and “very unlikely” it will do so.

He was also asked if there was a case for allowing indoor dining for fully vaccinated people.

Mr Varadkar said that is something he has “never ruled out” but there would be “quite a debate going down that route”.

He said there also would be an issue with whether or not staff are fully vaccinat.

“I’ve always said if you’re talking about a two or three week delay and then it’s open for everyone that’s one thing.

“But if it were an indefinite or prolonged delay I think most people in those scenarios would understand that if have to delay reopening for a prolonged period then it might make sense to make an exception for those who are fully vaccinated”.

He said it also might encourage others to get vaccinated.

Extra time

Earlier, Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said it was important for the sector to have clarity on the issue. Requests from the sector for clarity had been "very reasonable," he told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland.

Every week of a delay would buy extra time, Mr Harris said, as 300,000 people were being vaccinated per week. The question for Government and public health experts was what would be the right balance between vaccinations and reopening. “We can’t get that wrong,” he said.

Proposals that AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines be used on younger people are to be considered as the country would shortly be in the position of having excess AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines “but no arms to put them in,” Mr Harris said.

Such a decision by Niac “may require a bit of work” and he wanted the medical experts to give the best possible advice.

“We’ve had a very good reopening, we have to be careful we don’t go backwards.”

Even if younger people did not receive the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, Mr Harris still anticipated that the “significant majority” of college students would be vaccinated by the opening of colleges in September.

However, he also pointed out that the reopening of colleges was not contingent on everyone being vaccinated.

If the vaccination programme for young people could utilise the three million doses due to be delivered shortly, it would have knock on effects. It “made sense” to ask Niac to look at the benefits of using AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson now, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar also said no decision has yet been made on the resumption of non-essential international travel - slated to be allowed again from July 19th.

There were reports at the weekend that 75 people who arrived in Ireland left Mandatory Hotel Quarantine without permission within the first three months of the system being introduced.

Mr Varadkar said the system is working “reasonably well” but is not foolproof.

“What it does is it does reduce risk. And I think we’re going to have it for quite some time.

“I suspect that it will be around for much of next year if not most of next year because there are still large parts of the world where very small numbers of people are fully vaccinated.”

He added that people in the UK, EU and United States will probably be fully vaccinated by September.

Consequences

Meanwhile, the Government Deputy Chief Whip has expressed strong opposition to any delay in reopening indoor services in pubs and restaurants on July 5th saying it would have “terrible consequences” for the hospitality sector.

Brendan Griffin, a Fine Gael TD for Kerry, said indoor dining and drinking had been allowed in hotels for some weeks now with no evidence to show they were contributions to numbers.

“There is no overwhelming evidence emerging that dining and drinking in hotels has led to a spike in numbers,” he told The Irish Times.

“If on principle, the (public health authorities) are saying it’s not a severe risk in hotels it is very hard to expect pub and restaurant owners to accept it is a severe risk for them. All they are all looking for is parity.”

Mr Griffin said the impact of a further two week delay in reopening would have terrible consequences for hospitality, especially in counties like Kerry which were heavily reliant on tourism income.

“There will be eight weeks left until the children go back to school . If you take a further two weeks away from that that is 25 per cent of income.

“When kids go back to school it will be like turning off a tap. Then there is no guarantee that the further closure will be for just two weeks but won’t be extended again,” he said.

He said the real problem was drinking in “unregulated spaces”, not in places where social distancing and public health protocols were strictly enforced.

He also said the more venues opened, the less unregulated events such as house parties would occur.

Mr Griffin also made an appeal for older people who are fully vaccinated and waiting for 16 months for pubs to reopen.

“These are people who just want to have a pint inside. You can’t tell them to wait indefinitely. What about the vaccine bounce? Weren’t these the people who were going to be rewarded for being the first vaccinated?”