Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has indicated it may be August before indoor dining is allowed in th State.
Speaking on his way into a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, Mr Ryan said he expected digital travel certificates to go ahead as planned on July 19th, but that the rest of society would be opened across August.
He said the Government would not be throwing the doors open as they are doing in the UK but that health data from the UK would be significant in determining how plans could evolve.
Were going to get everyone vaccinated, back dining, able to socialise it will just take a bit of time, he said. Its not going to be a huge change, its going to be step by step.
Government officials met hospitality industry representatives on Monday and discussed options for reopening indoor dining and drinking.
Sources said six options were discussed, including using antigen or PCR testing and the use of a Covid certificate or pass for people to prove they have been vaccinated or had recovered from the virus in the last nine months.
As many as 1.8 million people who are fully vaccinated or have recently recovered from Covid-19 would be able to avail of indoor hospitality services, the meeting was told.
However, testing as a means to access indoor hospitality services was said by one source to be highly unlikely to form part of the immediate solution.
Mr Martin also reiterated the Governments commitment to begin operating the European digital pass by July 19th, despite doubts being expressed privately by some Cabinet members and senior officials.
Ministers are expected to be told on Tuesday that printed vaccine records will be sent out by post and arrangements for a verifier app and a call centre are being put in place to operate the system.
Anger is growing within the hospitality sector about the delay in opening inddoor dining, which was supposed to reopen on Monday.
On its Twitter account, the Bank Bar restaurant in Dublin posted a video pointing out the measures it had taken to ensure safe dining, including two deionising machines, newly installed vents and an air conditioning unit.
Restaurant owner Alan OReilly said the continuing ban was ridiculous and staff in the restaurant were being discriminated against in comparison with hotel staff.
Everywhere else in Europe is able to trade indoors. We are not. If Micheál Martin and the others would like to tell us why we are different from everybody else, wed love to hear from them, he said.
Paul Gallagher, the general manager of Buswells Hotel, said despite the fact that indoor dining could go ahead in hotels, they were not seeing any business as people were not eating out and there were no walk-ins.
The business could not survive without Government supports, he added.
Paul Lenihan, who owns three gastro pubs, said there was a desperate need for the sector to reopen.
Outdoor dining was not possible for all premises and there were many who could not physically reopen because of space issues, Mr Lenihan said. The sector should reopen by any means possible but only if it could be done in a safe manner for everyone, he said, adding customers wanted to feel safe.
Sinead Lambert Barrasso from the Sol Rio restaurant in Westport said a small outdoor dining space given by the local authority had seating for only 12 and was not viable, adding neither was a takeout service.
She said she did not know how the vaccination cert was expected to work and that it was discriminatory if she could go to a restaurant for a meal but her 20-year-old son, who was not yet vaccinated, could not do so.
