Varadkar: 'Corona pass' to pave way for indoor events and hospitality

A "Corona pass" may pave the way for reopening indoor events and hospitality, the Tánaiste has said.

Leo Varadkar will meet with representatives of the hospitality industry today after the Government announced that indoor eating and drinking would not reopen next week. 

No new date has been given for the reopening, with the Government simply hoping to unveil the plan for an eventual return by July 19.

Today's meeting will consider a proposal to restrict indoor dining, and other gatherings, to fully vaccinated people only.

Mr Varadkar said a Covid pass would show the vaccination or testing status of a person which, in the long-term, would lead to the return of many activities which are currently closed.

"We can use those three weeks to develop plans for a 'Corona pass', which, let's not forget, may pave the way for reopening not just indoor hospitality but indoor sports, live events, even if there is a Delta wave.

"That is one of the things that maybe isn't fully understood about the decision and the advice of yesterday. 

"Essentially option one is to not reopen indoors until we have herd immunity and who really knows when that will be - we'd hope September - but maybe we'd have to vaccinate children, maybe then we're heading into winter. 

"We now have this option of using a Corona pass to open up indoor hospitality indoor sport indoor live events and do that even if there's a Delta wave and never having to, potentially, lock down again."

Mr Varadkar said he did not know if the pass would be in place by July 19 and said much is still to be learned about the Covid-19 Delta variant.

He said the summer is not "completely gone" and outdoor hospitality is still allowed, though he accepts that this will not make up for the loss of indoor dining.

Mr Varadkar said the decisions being made were by the Government but were done on the basis of advice from Nphet. 

He said that Ireland had "outperformed" neighbours or comparable countries in terms of deaths or sickness from Covid-19.

The Tánaiste said that he felt in the last week that indoor dining would be pushed back, but defended the timing of the Nphet advice. 

He said that the group had used the most up-to-date modelling, which by its nature meant making a late decision. 

He said that while the Government will not be commissioning a peer review of Nphet modelling, he would welcome those "with an interest in the field" to review the data as it is released.

Mr Varadkar said that Ireland was being cautious about moving forward but it would "play out over the next three weeks if we've been too conservative or not".

He said that he "hoped Ireland is wrong" and the Delta wave of Covid-19 is less serious than the worst Nphet projections.