The Government has provided some clarity after there was confusion over the rules for pubs and restaurants ahead of the summer reopening.
Fáilte Ireland published guidelines ahead of the Government’s major Covid decision on Friday for when indoor dining and drinking can resume again.
Under the measures it was set to be a maximum six people aged 13 or over per table - but this limit of six does not include accompanying children aged 12 or younger.
The total combined capacity at a table cannot exceed 15 overall (max. six persons aged 13 and over) for both indoor and outdoor dining.
All premises both indoor and outdoor were said to have customers off site by 11.30pm.
If a premises chooses to have two metres social distance, they don’t have to have a 105-minute limit indoors.
These points were put to the Taoiseach on Friday evening.
He replied: "There's no curfew. These guidelines are similar to the ones that were there in 2020. We will keep these under review. We're opening the pubs in July. We want to keep it simple and get back to normality. Over the course of June, we'll keep outdoor under review and then indoor after that.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar then added: "The 105-minute rule only applies indoors and only applies where tables are less than two metres apart. So, in your fine dining restaurant or your quiet rural pub, they're more than two metres apart.
"The reason for a 105 minute rule is down to contact tracing - if you add an extra 15 minutes, it becomes two hours and then a close contact becomes a casual contact, meaning everyone in the pub would then be a close contact to that casual contact."
The country is set for a good summer as restrictions continue to ease, giving signs of normality resuming as the vaccination rollout continues.
Addressing the nation this evening, Mr Martin confirmed that pubs and restaurants will be allowed to open indoors from July 5.
Outdoor dining and drinking returns in two weeks.
