Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said the government’s target is to reopen indoor hospitality on Monday, July 26.
Mr Varadkar has said he has been speaking to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly about an app reader for publicans to use to verify people’s vaccination status.
The Fine Gael leader confirmed to the Irish Mirror that “the day we’re aiming for is Monday, July 26.”
The government has passed legislation in the Dáil to reopen indoor dining for those who are fully vaccinated or for people who have recovered from Covid-19.
It now needs to pass through the Seanad and signed into law by President Michael D Higgins.
Mr Varadkar said there isn’t any doubt in his mind that the July 26 reopening would go ahead despite Delta concerns.
He said: “So I spoke to Minister Donnelly about that today actually and we are, you know we're getting things in place.
“It looks like we're going to have an app reader that restaurateurs and publicans can use to verify that the COVID cert is valid and so on and a lot of work is being done on that.
“And we’re targeting Monday [July] 26, really because it [the legislation] has to go through the Seanad, we need to let the President time to consider the bills.
“And we need to get some regulations and a few things like that in place so the day we're aiming for is Monday July 26 [to reopen]."
It comes after the Tanaiste said the Government has asked NPHET to review whether Communions and other religious ceremonies could go ahead during the summer.
Mr Varadkar said this is one of two things that the Government has asked Dr Tony Holohan and his team to consider.
There was public outrage earlier this month when the Tanaiste revealed that religious ceremonies for school-going children had to be cancelled.
Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday, the Fine Gael leader said NPHET had also been asked to review whether indoor summer camps could go ahead at some stage.
He said they are expecting this updated advice from the public health doctors in the next two weeks.
He said: “There are two things we’re going to ask NPHET to review over the next two weeks.
“One is how we might safely provide for religious ceremonies; Christenings, Confirmations, Communions in a safe way over the summer.
“And also to look again at the issue of indoor summer camps.
“Could they be done with the same precautions as we apply in schools in September?
“And we have asked NPHET to consider both of those things and advise us on it within the next week or two.”
The Tanaiste was responding to his Fine Gael colleague Emer Higgins, who asked her party leader when could children socialise with their friends again given they can dine indoors and do not need to be vaccinated to travel abroad.
He warned that there has been a surge in Covid-19 cases among children.
Mr Varadkar said: “I think your point is well made. I always say in a pandemic the easiest thing to do is shut the country down or to fully reopen it and the hardest thing to do is everything in between.
“The difficulty though, that we do face, is this virus has changed.
“Delta is different and we can see now from the increase in cases over the last week or two, a surge in cases among children, secondary school aged children as well, teenagers and unvaccinated adults aged under 35 and that’s very different to the pandemic that we experienced at the start of March [2020].”
