Eamon Ryan has confirmed the Government is set to cancel next week’s pub and restaurant indoor reopening.
The Minister for Transport and third co-leader in Government spoke to reporters on the way into the crunch Cabinet meeting this morning.
Ministers are expected to sign-off on a postponement of indoor reopening for a number of weeks.
But the good news for those vaccinated is that fully-jabbed people will be able to enjoy bars and restaurants first when doors reopen again sometime in July.
Mr Ryan said: “It is likely to be delayed, we still have to make a decision in Cabinet, but yes, I would expect that (a delay).
“The modelling from NPHET last night was worrying.
“We are concerned about the Delta variant and even with a high level of vaccinations how it would affect hospitalisations, and that is the key metric.”
Mr Ryan indicated that it would take a number of weeks to put in place the arrangements to allow for fully-vaccinated people back indoors first.
It is expected that this would involve the production of some kind of vaccination cert, or perhaps other documentation that might prove you have had Covid and recovered.
Mr Ryan added: “I think we’ll need a little bit of time to talk to the stakeholders, talk internally about how to manage our response, but we’re still progressing.
“There’s also good news in that we are progressing with AstraZeneca being offered to the younger age groups.”
The decisive meeting got underway at 9am this morning and an announcement to the nation from the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, is expected at 1pm this afternoon.
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