Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil today that under the government’s proposed new system for indoor hospitality, that live music, entertainment and the arts could reopen for fully vaccinated citizens.

Since the reopening of indoor hospitality was delayed from its original date of July 5, the government has been devising a new system to allow people who are fully vaccinated indoors.

Under the plans, the government would plan to reopen indoor dining and drinking to those that have “verifiable evidence of vaccination or immunity status”. For a lot of people, this would come in the form of the new EU Digital Covid Cert which is presented to those who are fully vaccinated and would be checked alongside another form of ID.

Speaking on those plans today in the Dáil, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that “we may not have to use this system for very long”.

He did continue to say, however, that once the plans are implemented they could be used to help accelerate the return of live music and the rest of the entertainment sector.

“In the meantime, we might be able to use it to reopen other sectors currently closed like live music, for example, the arts, leisure, and entertainment facilities.”

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly added that “we must continue to take a cautious and pragmatic approach to reopening” due to the highly transmissible nature of the prevalent Delta variant.

The news comes after yesterday’s confusion when ministers and officials had to issues corrections about the role of GPs in the new scheme.

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