The CEO of the Restaurant Association of Ireland, Adrian Cummins, has said that the chances of indoor dining and drinking being delayed are 50/50.
NPHET is meeting today to advise the Government about the next steps on the planned reopening with the prominence of the Delta variant being the major topic of discussion.
A decision by the Government about reopening is expected to be made tomorrow and no decision is likely until NPHET provides its latest update.
NIAC's input on whether or not the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can be used for people that are aged under-50 will also be a key factor in the decision.
However, speaking on Newstalk, Mr Cummins provided an insight into what the restaurant industry currently thinks ahead of today's meeting while also corroborating reports that the reopening could now take place on July 19.
"It's 50/50 at the moment, whether or not we will have a postponement to July 19 or whether we open on time as scheduled July 5. There is growing speculation and growing calls from a part of the medical profession and imminent professors to open now on July 5," he said.
During a recent interview, Minister Eamon Ryan said that there are logistical advantages to moving the indoor reopening of pubs and restaurants to July 19, should they be delayed.
Mr Ryan said: "I don't want to make a decision here but the one advantage of that would be that on the 19th of July, you would be doing again a series of other measures, so you'll be integrated within that and it makes a certain sense, rather than having too many staged.
"Keep it relatively simple. If there's a decision to do a delay, it would seem to me to make more sense to do it as part of that time."
Mr Cummins elaborated on that rumoured date but was also critical of the Government for failing to provide a vaccine bonus to the restaurant industry.
"We've always followed public health advice and we will do so when that advice is given. We are in a different position now. We're asking very carefully from the Government, where is the vaccine bonus that we were promised? We were promised that we would be open at the end of June.
"Now that was moved to the fifth of July, and there's a question that it could be moved for another two weeks. So this seems to be a moveable feast all of the time. You have to it into perspective that hotels have been open since the second of June with no outbreak of a Delta variant within any established hotels for 27 days. We need to open and we want to open on July 5," he said.
