THE GOVERNMENT HOPES to provide “an indicative idea” at the end of next week about the Covid-19 restrictions that will be in place for the summer months, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said this afternoon. 

The Cabinet will meet as usual on Tuesday with a further meeting on Thursday that would sign off on plans for the easing of restrictions.

The government has previously stated that the easing of restrictions in May would include elements such as the full opening of construction and the return of retail and personal services such as hairdressers. 

Speaking yesterday, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said that the government wanted to provide a roadmap beyond May and to provide “as much detail as possible”.

He said that businesses “just want an indication of when they might be able to reopen”.

Next Thursday, before the May Bank Holiday, is similar to last year when the government revealed its roadmap to reopening society on the Friday before the May Bank Holiday. 

Speaking to reporters today, Varadkar did not say that a similarly detailed plan would be revealed next week but that the government would endeavour to provide people with a picture of what the restrictions would look like during the summer months.   

He said that following the regular Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, another Cabinet meeting would follow later in the week focusing on Covid-19 restrictions.

This meeting is to take place on Thursday after the advice from NPHET has been considered. 

“Next week at Cabinet we will have advice from NPHET at that point. And we’ll be able to decide what restrictions can be waived in May,” he said.

As we stated before, that will involve looking at things like personal services like barbers and hairdressers, retail, more outdoor activities, religious services, and the full return of construction, they’re the kinds of things that we’re going to look at next week for May, I don’t want to speculate beyond that.

“We would hope to be able to indicate very clearly, we would expect to be able to indicate very clearly, what restrictions will be eased in May and then set out an indicative idea as to what to be eased in June or July. And I don’t want to go any further than that.”