The Vintners' Federation of Ireland says if some pubs do not reopen next Monday as part of Phase 4 they may never resume trading again.
53 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the Republic yesterday, bringing the total amount of cases here to 26,162.
The Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said the five-day average now stands at 47.
Pubs that only serve alcohol are scheduled to reopen under the government roadmap on August 10th.
However, there are fears this increase in cases over the last week could stop Phase 4 going ahead.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, the CEO of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Padraig Cribben, said he is worried pubs are being blamed for the mistakes of the general public.
He said: "What we're concerned will happen is that the government will take a view that we will send a message to the general public via keeping the pubs closed.
"The message is, 'things are very bad, we even have to jeep the pubs closed'.
"It's not acceptable to use the pubs, the publicans, their family businesses and their 25,000 employees as a conduit to get the message out.
He added: "We're in a big different world five months on where people understand they may not be complying with it but they know what social distancing means.
"In a lot of instances you have big movements of people together but not to the same extent you had in March, we're talking about two different worlds."
In a further statement today, the Vintners' Federation said pubs "can no longer be left in limbo around if and when they will be able to trade".
NPHET are due to pass on their advice to the government on the reopening of pubs at a Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
