Restaurateur Paul Treyvaud has strongly criticised the Government for mixed messaging on further re-opening the country.
As it stands indoor dining and larger weddings are set to resume from July 5th - as well as international travel from July 19th.
On Tuesday, ministers seemed cautious but positive that the re-opening could still go ahead, but the Taoiseach Michael Martin has since admitted it could be delayed.
But Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says he cannot provide clarity on whether July's re-opening is going ahead because of the Delta variant.
He says while it still remains on track for now it could change, such is the nature of the virus.
"I'm sorry if it is confusing, but that is the position - and the position has always been, I think people understand this, that we give an indicative date for restrictions to be eased.
"But that's never confirmed until the week before, and can't be until we know the epidemiological situation at that point and we have the advice from NPHET.
"I appreciate how annoying and frustrating this is for people.
"And I know that's not a satisfactory answer if you're trying to re-engage staff, if you want to know whether or not you can have 50 at your wedding or 25, whether you should buy stock in or not.
"I totally understand how frustrating this is, and how more frustrating it gets the longer it goes on.
"But we have to be straight with people, and that is the current situation at the moment".
Mr Treyvaud told Lunchtime Live the Government is far removed from what's going on.
"I think the biggest question we must ask ourselves is 'What's happened in the last 12 hours for Micheál Martin to have come out and said the Delta variant isn't a concern'.
"And literally overnight he's saying 'Actually it appears it's a huge concern now'.
"I don't know what's changed in literally 12 hours, and now the entire restaurant industry, the bar industry, so many other industries are sitting going 'What?'
"What are we doing? We're supposed to be opening in 10/12 days time, and now we have to wait till next Thursday or Friday.
"The Government apparently think it's just that easy to open a bar or restaurant: 'Just open the door lads, and off you go'.
"They are literally so far removed from what's going on, it actually beggars belief."
Paul says the Government messaging leaves a lot to be desired.
"What they're doing is they come out with this shadowing of great news [that] 'our national debt is in great position because guess what? Even though we've borrowed more, our interest is lower'.
"What they won't tell you is that the interest is lower for one reason and one reason only: we've borrowed more money on a much lower rate for now.
"But we're going to have to borrow even more money on a higher rate to pay back that off, which means our interest is going to go through the roof again.
"At some stage somebody needs to call out this Government for the worst, useless shower of inept politicians that I have ever encountered in my life.
"And I'm not going to regret saying that".
Paul says it is no longer about just feeling annoyed.
Another morning of ‘let’s blame the restaurants, bars & foreign travel (none of which are open) instead of asking how the fuck did the delta variant get here?
I can’t imagine what’s going through peoples minds working in hospitality & aviation. If it’s like mine, don’t do it….— Paul Treyvaud (@PaulTreyvaud) June 23, 2021
"It's actually gone beyond feeling upset or unfair, it's actually a joke - it's an absolute joke.
"How does the Tánaiste come out two or three days ago and tell us that the pandemic is over?
"And why is there no journalists out there asking these politicians these serious questions?
"Why are we that we have 40 in hospital with COVID, not because of COVID, with 13 in ICU with COVID, not because of COVID, that our numbers are way down on last year, we have almost four million vaccines given - and we are now in a worse situation than we were last year.
"Somebody has to turn around and make these guys accountable."
'We would have been wiped out decades ago'
And he added public health advice should be co-existing with day-to-day life.
"What we've shown in the last 12 to 16 months is that initially perhaps it worked, but now lockdowns are not the answer.
"What happens in three weeks' time? We're already hearing that... the Delta variant plus is now a major concern in India.
"But the Indian variant that came out a couple of months back is no longer mentioned in India.
"Boris [Johnson] is so worried about the Delta variant over in the UK, they're about to put 60,000 fans into Wembley to watch a match in the coming week.
"So at what stage do we turn around and say 'Look lads you know that Living with COVID thing that we mentioned? Well we actually are going to have to live with COVID'.
"What is the alternative - continuous lockdown?
"If we were to listen to public health advice forever, we would have been wiped out decades ago because of AIDS - because they told us none of us should have been riding each other anymore.
"So at what point do we turn around and call a halt to this nonsense and discover that the fine line of balance of keeping the economy going, and worrying about COVID, we've far reached that.
"We're in serious trouble now with our economy".
