The new indoor dining and drinking arrangements will be “far from perfect”, the Tánaiste has admitted.

Leo Varadkar emphasised that the Government intends on opening indoor hospitality in line with public health advice.

The Tánaiste said the country needs to move forward in a way that prevents us from going backwards as restrictions are eased.

“I know there'll be a lot of reservations about it. But I do feel that it is the only way that we can open indoor dining at the moment,” Mr Varadkar said.

The Fine Gael leader said: “The solution that we hope will be agreed by Government today is far from perfect.” The admission came after being asked by Independent.ie if youngsters with the virus, to be admitted onto the premises with vaccinated parents, could threaten the health of staff and servers.

He added: “We see countries across Europe now that are reimposing restrictions. Catalonia and the Netherlands for example, and now bringing back things like vaccine passes, having previously phased them out.

"And what we are trying to do in Ireland is to move forward slowly, in a way that doesn't have us go backwards – and I think people understand that.

“I think the only way that we can open indoor dining and drinking is with vaccine and immunity passes. If we wait until September, we just don't know where we will be by then. We could be well into the Delta wave. There could be concerns after that point around schools and colleges, and concerns about heading into the winter.

“So I think the best thing we can do for people who work in the hospitality sector, and business owners in that sector, is to try to open in a staged manner.

"Additionally, with vaccine passes and immunity passports, then perhaps including PCR tests and antigen testing down the line. That's the kind of plan we have, but as we know, this virus loves to disrupt our plans, but we are trying to make the best ones that we can, and the objective is to reopen slowly and not go backwards.

“We're seeing a lot of countries now having to reimpose restrictions and we don't want to be in that position.”

Asked about children and teenagers and the extent to which they can contract the virus and pass it on, Mr Varadkar said they thankfully, very rarely became sick or hospitalised. But he added that anyone over the age of 18 now had the opportunity to become vaccinated.

“If they're vaccinated, I think they'll be much safer working in that indoor environment than they were this time last year, precisely because the vast majority of patrons in the pub or in the restaurant will now be vaccinated. And of course, all the protocols will apply, including masking, for example. So I don't have a major concern in terms of safety.”

But the Government would be saying to employers that they should carry out antigen testing of their staff, “maybe twice a week or once a week”.

Of the 200 people admitted to ICU in recent weeks, only one person had been fully vaccinated when contracting Covid, he said. And only 18 had been partially vaccinated when struck by the virus. So the message was clear that vaccination was a powerful protection, although people should realise they are not fully protected until a week or so after their second doses.

“So that really does say to people: Please go and get your second dose,” he said.

On digital vaccination certs going out this week to allow people to take part in indoor hospitality, Mr Varadkar said he “certainly wouldn't anticipate everyone will get them on the same day”.

“It's quite a big operation being led by the Department of Health and also the Revenue Commissioners. It might take a little bit longer than that.”

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the time limit of 1 hour and 45 minutes on bookings for indoor dining is due to “caution”.

He said indoor hospitality will open on a “phased” basis and he said that once indoor hospitality reopens initially to vaccinated people, antigen testing will then later be “evaluated”.

It is expected that Cabinet will tomorrow sign off on the plans, which will see 105-minute slots for bookings.

Mr Martin said that this is due to “caution”.

“The key issue for us is about protecting people who are unvaccinated, it’s not about age. We don’t want people getting Covid and I don’t accept the UK approach - let it rip, so to speak,” he said.

“It’s with the best motives in the world that we are proceeding the way we are proceeding. I can’t think of a higher motivation than trying to protect people’s health and people’s lives.”