The Government is likely to scrap the €9 substantial meal rule which kept so-called wet pubs closed.
Speaking ahead of a crunch Cabinet meeting, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said there won’t be a distinction between wet pubs and pubs that serve food when the hospitality industry is allowed to reopen for customers indoors.
When asked if there’ll be any more €9 substantial meals, Mr Ryan said: “I think less likely, I think we've learned outdoor is safer..that will define..not whether you're having chicken nuggets on top of it.
“I think we might learn from, we don’t want all those systems where you have to ..people had to get a certain meal and it was a false kind of division.
“I think it will start outdoors because it’s much safer and I don’t think it’ll be whether it’s divided between food or not.
“Really outdoors versus indoors will be the difference.”
Ministers are pushing for outdoor dining to reopen at the end of May but a final decision will be made after health chiefs meet with government officials on Wednesday night.
Mr Ryan said hospitality will reopen in a staged approach in June, starting with outdoor dining and this will likely coincide with lifting the ban on inter-county travel.
He said: “I think what’s worked in the last few months is where it’s been staged.
“For example early this week the football and golf and things coming back so I think it’ll be the same, a series of staged reopenings.
“I think the Taoiseach said yesterday if I saw him quoted correctly, that we hope we can get hospitality back in June, domestic tourism effectively comes back and I think that is something we’re really keen to do, even that, it could be done in a staged basis..you open outside dining and further at a later stage you open up inside and so on.
“The way the numbers are going thankfully they’ve held relatively steady, they’re still high in compared to what they were this time last year but with the vaccine rollout ramping up I think there’s an opportunity for us to start seeing the country open up more and included in that will be aviation.”
When asked if fully vaccinated people can travel abroad this summer, Mr Ryan said it’ll be possible in a matter of months.
He told the Irish Mirror he didn't want to give the aviation industry “false promises” on dates.
He said: “But I think with vaccinations increasing that will increase the ability of people to travel and come in and it is not weeks away but it’s not much more than a few months away in my mind in terms of us getting aviation back.”
The Cabinet sub-committee is meeting on Wednesday to consider what restrictions can be eased next month.
The committee is made up of the three coalition leaders, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath.
They will receive advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), before making a recommendation to the whole Cabinet on Thursday, ahead of an official announcement later in the evening.
It is anticipated that the Government will also set out plans for June and July.
Restrictions are expected to be eased on non-essential retail, personal services such as hairdressers, construction and religious ceremonies on a staggered basis throughout May.
Museums, galleries, libraries and some outdoor attractions will also reopen in May.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin told Northern Sound on Wednesday: "We will look at hotels, bed and breakfasts and guesthouses in the month of June.
“We will make a comprehensive announcement on it tomorrow. The virus has devastated many areas of our economy.
“We are very conscious of that. Whatever we reopen we want to keep it open. That is the challenge.
“We are dealing with a very transmissible variant here. It’s about balance and being proportionate.
“It’s still out there, 400 cases a day.”
