Unvaccinated children will be allowed into bars and restaurants provided they are accompanied by a vaccinated adult under plans to reopen indoor hospitality before July 26.

Plans to ensure families can eat indoors during the summer holiday season are being finalised by officials and representatives from the hospitality sectors this weekend.

The Government is expected to rush through legislation this week to get indoor hospitality reopened the following week and possibly before the weekend of July 24 and 25.

Among the proposals being considered are that ‘family units’ with unvaccinated children may be asked to sit in a separate area of a bar or restaurant where there are spaces of up to two metres between tables.

Such guidelines may also help resolve the issue of how hotels cater for their unvaccinated guests, who have been able to dine indoors since early last month, and non-residents who are vaccinated or are immune as a result of having had the virus.

However, the proposals are unlikely to be finalised until tomorrow at the earliest when Health Minister Stephen Donnelly (pictured below) is briefed.

Restaurants and bars will have to operate a booking policy for indoor dining and drinking; a time limit may also apply.

Verifying a person’s vaccinated or immunity status is likely to be done partly using the EU’s Digital Covid Certificate (DCC) system, with these certificates due to be issued to millions of people from Monday.

Restaurants and bars will be able to download an app which can read the QR code — similar to a barcode, but square — on the DCC which will be issued in email and paper format.

For those from the North who have been vaccinated but want to dine or drink in the south, a proposal is being examined so their GP can upload their vaccination status to the HSE portal.

A national media campaign will be launched to explain to the general public and businesses how the new system will work.

Compliance inspections will be carried out by Fáilte Ireland, the Health and Safety Authority and environmental health officers.

The hospitality sector has been told that thousands of inspections have already been carried out in recent months and enforcement is taking place.

There will be a role for An Garda Síochána when people attempt to dine indoors without proof of vaccine or where it is suspected they may be using a forged document.

Legislation to amend the 1947 Public Health Act will go before the Cabinet on Tuesday before making its way through the Dáil and Seanad in the week.

Several Government TDs have criticised the proposal to restrict indoor dining to the vaccinated; as one coalition backbencher said yesterday, they were likely to “go missing” for the vote.

Once it passes the Oireachtas the new legislation will require the signature of President Michael D Higgins before it can be enacted.

Meanwhile, there have been an additional 581 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, the Department of Health said.

As of 8am on Friday, there were 52 people in hospitals, of whom 16 were in intensive care units.

Ministers are braced for a surge in case numbers — which are likely to run into the thousands next month, with hundreds hospitalised — but, it is hoped, ICU numbers will remain at or below 50.

More than 55pc of the adult population are now fully vaccinated and 70pc are partly vaccinated, the chief executive of the HSE has said.

In a tweet posted yesterday Paul Reid said more than 275,000 vaccinations were administered last week.

“A big challenge, but we all want to protect where we’re at for now,” he said.

Elsewhere, the European Union says it now has enough doses to meet its goal of vaccinating 70pc of the region’s adult population by the end of this month.

With infections resurging in many European countries, the next challenge will be ensuring the doses find takers as demand wanes in some areas.

According to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), 44pc of the adult EU population is fully vaccinated, and 64pc have received at least one dose.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that by today 500 million doses will have been delivered to all regions of the 27-nation EU. She urged member countries to “do everything to increase vaccinations”.

So far EU countries have administered 386 million doses for the overall population of 447 million, according to the ECDC.

While Europe’s vaccination campaign is more advanced than most of the world, the pace within the EU varies.

Just 17pc of Bulgaria’s adult population has had a first dose versus 81pc in Belgium.