Ireland might demand proof of vaccine to drink inside pubs and restaurants

Ministers will discuss the proposal at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday

O’Donoghues Bar is pictured in Dublin, Ireland, on 4 June, 2021. (PA)

The Irish government will decide on Tuesday whether only the fully vaccinated will be allowed to enjoy indoor hospitality as part of the next stage of lockdown easing.

If ministers choose to impose this requirement, it is thought that the scheduled reopening of indoor venues could be pushed back from Monday to give more preparation time.

Although outdoor eating and drink was reintroduced on 7 June, bars, restaurants and cafes in Ireland have largely been closed since last March.

Eamon Ryan, the transport minister, told reporters on Tuesday that the government was assessing the National Public Health Emergency Team’s recommendation that people show “vaccination status” to gain entry to inside dining and drinking facilities once they open their doors.

The country would be one of the first in Europe to implement such a policy if it is given the green light.

The British government was mulling over a similar scheme earlier this year, but it was strongly criticised, especially by leading figures in the hospitality sector.

Speaking in March, Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said it was important that pubs were not just limited to those with “vaccination certification”.

Ms Nicholls added: “It’s crucial that visiting the pub and other parts of hospitality should not be subject to mandatory vaccination certification.

“It is simply unworkable, would cause conflict between staff and customers and almost certainly result in breaches of equality rules.”

The discussions about indoor hospitality in Ireland come as the country hopes to speed up its vaccination rollout by permitting young people to have doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Back in March, Dublin decided to ban its use among younger age groups over the jab’s link to rare blood clots.

However, the Taoiseach said on Friday that the National Immunisation Advisory Council was considering whether to overturn this decision.

Micheal Martin said the “balance of risk has changed” due to the Delta variant, and that lifting the AstraZeneca ban would “really broaden the portfolio of vaccines for July and August”.

Kingston Mills, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, agreed with this assessment, telling the Irish Times there “is little rationale” to confine spare vaccines to the over-50s.

“If they are going to use it, they should use it in the whole population,” he added.

So far, more than 40 per cent of the country’s adults have received both vaccine doses, according to Professor Brian MacCraith, chairman of the Covid-19 vaccination task force.

Ireland has reported a total of 272,000 Covid-19 infections and 4,989 deaths from the virus, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

Additional reporting from Reuters