Leo Varadkar has revealed when pubs are expected to reopen in Ireland.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin today, the Tánaiste predicted that “indoor dining and meeting indoors in pubs” would be allowed in July.
According to the Irish Examiner, the politician said: “I think we have to get through another winter to be sure, but I do think life will pretty much back to normal by August.”
Using Israel as an example, Leo pointed out how they’re welcoming tourists again thanks to their vaccination programme.
“Life in Israel is pretty much back to normal – they’re welcoming tourists again and they’re having, not very large gatherings, but they are having mass gatherings,” he continued.
“They kind of got to that point when they were at, where we would expect to be by August.”
“So, I’m hoping that that’s the month when things are relatively normal again. That doesn’t mean that everything will be the same, but the vast majority of restrictions, you would hope to see gone by August of this year.”
“Kids going back to school as normal, and September, college happening on campus and September, October, all those things, and then a pretty normal Christmas in terms of seeing our friends and relations.”
However, the Tánaiste warned that this timeline could change.
“It’s possible that the efficacy of the vaccines could wear off after a certain point of time,” he said.
“We don’t know what might happen in terms of variants that may be vaccine-resistant. We don’t know what will happen when the winter comes.”
