Holohan positive on Covid outlook, but warns on Indian variant as Varadkar raises fear of fourth wave at Fine Gael meeting

Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste faced criticism of plans for reopening the hospitality sector at their parties’ weekly meetings this evening, as separately, the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) met to review the latest data on the virus.

It comes ahead of the Government announcing an easing of coronavirus restrictions on Friday.

After the Nphet meeting, Dr Holohan briefed Minister Stephen Donnelly on the spread of the virus.

“The minister and the Chief Medical Officer had a constructive session following Nphet meeting with the epidemiological situation viewed a steady and broadly positive with identified risks including variants and local spikes,” a source said.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Donnelly said he had just come from a meeting with Mr Holohan and was “very happy to report” that Nphet’s view is the “trajectory is positive”.

The Minister said this was “thanks to the Irish people getting behind the measures day after day and keeping case numbers and hospitalisation figures low”.

It is expected Nphet will clear the way for the resumption of indoor dining in early July if the rate of Covid-19 transmission remains stable and the vaccination programme continue to progress.

Nphet is also expected to recommend beginning pilot programmes for live events.

However, there are concerns Nphet will not green-light the return of international travel as soon as ministers would have hoped.

Meanwhile, unhappiness at continued severe controls on hospitality has been voiced at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting.

Sligo-Leitrim TD Marc MacSharry said he might have to consider his position within the party if people were not treated like adults on hospitality.

Surprisingly strong support came from Senator Lisa Chambers of Mayo, former Brexit spokeswoman, who said the Government was “just p***ing people off” with rules that were too detailed and restrictive. There were similar contributions from Dara Calleary, Paul McAuliffe and John Lahart.

Mr MacSharry said Taoiseach needed to listen to his colleagues for once and realise that our role was more than selling tickets for the annual party draw. Many are vaccinated and are entitled not to have an “11:30 curfew”.

They should be able to listen to music while socialising and to eat and drink indoors, he said.

It was time Dr Tony Holohan stepped back and Taoiseach and government stepped up, Mr MacSharry said.

He told of a bride to be who on the back of Nphet and Bord Fáilte guidelines was told by a hotel that she couldn’t have her wedding dance and there could be no music.

Mr MacSharry said he “expected the Taoiseach to listen” and that Friday’s announcement of the next steps in lifting restrictions should reflect what colleagues were saying at the parliamentary party tonight.

If not, he would have to reflect on what action can be taken within the parliamentary party, Mr MacSharry said.

Mr MacSharry later told Independent.ie that if there were not sufficient liberalisation, he would have to “reflect on what action can be taken within the parliamentary party.”

This was said by some TDs and Senators to be at variance with the impression he left with the at the meeting, that he might depart the Fianna Fail ranks.

Vaccinated people should “not have to continue to live in such a totalitarian regime,” Mr MacSharry added. There were senior physicians and scientists who disagreed with Nphet but were not prepared to say so publicly for fear of reprisals by the HSE, he claimed.

Prominent backbencher Jim O’Callaghan, seen as a potential leader, said control should be “handed back to the people” in terms of public health restrictions.

Members also criticised an alleged lack of consultation with restaurateurs and publicans on the planned Friday announcements and and the new guidelines that have been drawn up.

The Taoiseach said in response that many sectors are coming back. “What we open we want to keep open. Hospitality will evolve with flexibilities,” he said.

He added: “We need to keep it simple on guidelines and they will kept under constant review.”

When public health advice changes the guidelines will also change in consultation with the hospitality sector, he said.

Aviation, travel, hospitality, sport, entertainment and the arts will be in focus in the coming days. The economic recovery plan would meanwhile reboot the economy.

“The public appreciate how this is working,” he said. “Each phase of reopening is allowing more people back to work and all of us to plan to get back to normal over time.”

When the history is written and there is full evaluation, “it will show how this Government responded in protecting lives and supporting society in this difficult period,” Mr Martin added.

At the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting this evening, the Tánaiste warned of the possibility of a fourth wave of Covid-19 as he came under major pressure from Fine Gael colleagues to scrap mandatory hotel quarantine and “indefensible” rules for reopening hospitality next month.

Amid calls from his own party to accelerate the relaxation of public health restrictions on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar warned that the pandemic was not over and that “we’re not out of the woods yet”.

The Fine Gael leader mentioned the possibility of a fourth wave on a number of occasions at the private Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting and said the country needed to get through another winter.

Sources at the meeting said Mr Varadkar outlined how the third wave was caused by increased socialising and a more infectious variant arriving via international travel at Christmas. He said it was “not impossible” that the country could find itself in that position again after restrictions are eased in the coming weeks.

A succession of former Fine Gael ministers criticised the distinction between hotels, which are set to open to indoor dining on June 2, and restaurants and pubs which will only be allowed to resume outdoor dining on June 7, as well as the new 105-minute limit for people dining indoors.

TDs and senators also took aim at “draconian” restrictions on foreign travel with calls for mandatory hotel quarantine (MHQ) to be scrapped.

It comes as new figures show 173 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in mandatory hotel quarantine since it has been introduced and 58 cases were variants of concern. A further 58 samples are still being tested to determine whether they are variants of concern or not.

Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan said MHQ had to be “parked” and taken “off the pitch” to bring Ireland back into line with the rest of the EU and said the 105-minute indoor dining rule had been “plucked out of the sky”.

Former justice minister Charlie Flanagan called for MHQ to be discontinued or phased out and for restaurants and hotels to be put on the same footing. Mr Flanagan told his party that “a nut roast in a restaurant is probably the same as a nut roast in a hotel restaurant”.

Former sports minister Brendan Griffin also criticised the decision to reopen hotels to indoor dining before pubs and restaurants, saying this could lead to congregations in hotels and abuse of rules.

The Kerry TD said the 105-minute time limit on indoor dining was “counterproductive” as it could lead to people moving from venue to venue and make contact tracing more difficult. He also said current public health measures were “disproportionate” to the current risk given the success of vaccinations.

Former agriculture minister Michael Creed said the differentiation between hotels and pubs and restaurants was “entirely indefensible” and “lacked common sense”, comparing it to the now-abandoned €9 meal rule.

Another former minister, John Paul Phelan, said the ban on indoor dining was asking people to “run to the cars with their plates” if it rains and said there was a necessity for the domestic tourism industry to “level the playing field” between hotels and pubs and restaurants.

In response to the criticism, Mr Varadkar said the new Fáilte Ireland guidelines were “not the last word” and signalled they would be reviewed in the coming months as the sector reopens.

Backbenchers Joe Carey, Kieran O’Donnell and Senator Tim Lombard criticised the ongoing restrictions on the aviation industry and called for clarity. Mr Carey called for the phasing out of MHQ and the reopening of travel corridors with the UK and America.

Senator Regina Doherty criticised Coalition ministers, including Eamon Ryan, Stephen Donnelly and Michael McGrath, saying inconsistencies in messaging are “driving people mad”. Both she and Dublin Fingal TD Alan Farrell warned of further layoffs by Aer Lingus in the coming weeks without certainty for the industry.

MEP Seán Kelly said he did not understand why there were “draconian” rules on travel into Ireland given some people are fully vaccinated. He also questioned the logic of not allowing crowds at sporting events given that 10,000 people attended Premier League matches in the UK last week.

Mr Varadkar said that Fine Gael had always been on the side of allowing people to travel rather than “shutting the skies down” but said this needed to be done safely and that the Government would await the advice of public health experts.

Earlier in the meeting, Mr Varadkar said the Government would announce on Friday what restrictions would be in place in June and July and that the aim was to get back to Level 2 where the country was at last summer before restrictions were reimposed in August.

Under Level 2 restrictions, the majority of areas of economy and society - for example, schools, restaurants, pubs and gyms – are open with controlled indoor gatherings of up to 100 people allowed and 200 at outdoor gatherings.

Mr Varadkar said the vaccine portal would open to 40- to 45-year-olds in the next couple of days and that they would have the option of getting the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine.

The Tánaiste also told his party that an announcement on the future of State Covid support schemes, including the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP), would be made at next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

While there would be no ‘cliff edge’ and there would not be a dramatic change for these payments in the third quarter, Mr Varadkar signalled that the phasing out would begin from October onwards.

Earlier, the meeting heard from Dublin Bay South by-election candidate James Geoghegan. Director of elections, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris, said the Fine Gael message on the doorsteps should be to warn of the possibility of there being two Sinn Féin TDs in the constituency and no Fine Gael representative.

Mr Harris told the meeting that internal Fine Gael constituency analysis suggests it could be a battle between Fine Gael and Sinn Féin for the Dáil seat in Dublin Bay South.

He warned that a low turnout could have the same impact as the November 2019 Dublin Mid-West by-election where a Sinn Féin 'get-out-the-vote' effort saw its candidate Mark Ward pip Fine Gael's Emer Higgins to the seat.