Leo Varadkar yesterday defended the move to postpone indoor hospitality as “the right decision”.

And he criticised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s reopening plan, describing it as “too risky”.

The Tanaiste warned the UK’s move on July 19 could lead to a “spillover” with Ireland because of the significant travel between the two.

The Fine Gael leader said the Government is concerned about the “packed West End theatres” in London and “nightclubs in Manchester packed to the rafters”.

He added the UK’s decision is “a gamble, quite frankly, that we were not willing to take”.

However, Mr Varadkar also said he wanted to “avoid a spiral of fear” over the new Delta variant, noting that because of vaccinations, the country is in a different place to where it was when the third wave hit.

He added: “So 1,000 cases a day or even 2,000 cases a day at this time is not the same as 1,000 cases a day or 2,000 cases a day back in January or February.

“That’s because the link between cases, infections and deaths, that’s what really matters.

“It is considerably weakened, not broken, but it is considerably weakened.

“But bear in mind if the number of people in ICU trebled, it would still be less than 50 people in ICU and we were easing restrictions before when there were 50 people in ICU.

“If the number of people in hospital beds quadrupled, there’d still only be around 50 people in beds with infection.”