Dr Ronan Glynn has revealed the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) never advised the government about €9 meals which has allowed some pubs to reopen.
The Acting Chief Medical Officer also insisted pubs are set to remain shut for weeks "at least" as the priority is to reopen the education system in the country.
TDs were told at the Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee that NPHET advised at the time that restaurants in the traditional sense should reopen.
Tipperary Independent TD Mattie McGrath asked Dr Glynn why a €9 sandwich allowed a person to drink in a pub while wet pubs have to keep their doors closed.
Deputy McGrath said: “Who came up with the guideline that if a person has a €9 meal he or she is safe for 90 minutes? It is totally unfair.”
Dr Glynn said: “NPHET never said anything about a €9 meal.
"It said that restaurants, in the traditional sense of what we understand is a restaurant in this country, should open.”
In response to Independent TD for Waterford Matt Shanahan who asked about rural wet pubs being locked down, Dr Glynn said he commits to keeping the reopening of pubs “under review both nationally and on a regional basis".
He said: “On the pubs, as I have said previously, we absolutely recognise the impact this has had on small family businesses around the country and on communities that rely on their local pubs as a key social point of contact for people.
“However, we have to be clear about what our priorities are.
“For the next few weeks at least, our priority has to be the reopening of our education system, ensuring that goes smoothly in the context of a set of measures that are already in place for the country around reducing congregation.
“I absolutely commit to keeping it under review both nationally and on a regional basis."
Also speaking at the Covid-19 Oireachtas Committee, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that pubs that are still closed are shut to avoid a second lockdown.
He said: “Pubs can’t open right now and I really do understand the pain and the anguish and the suffering that that is causing for so many publicans and their staff around the country.
“But based on public health advice and what’s required to suppress this virus and avoid a second lockdown, that is a very clear position of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
"What they have said is that restaurants can open, so it’s not wet pubs, it’s pubs and restaurants and some pubs are operating as restaurants at the moment which is good and fine.
“And the international evidence is that we do not see a lot of clusters coming from restaurants which is why the recommendation from NPHET was that they open.
“However, it is my firm view that the moment it is deemed safe for the pubs to open they need to open.”
