The Irish public was given several reasons to be hopeful for a somewhat normal summer ahead today.
Taniaste Leo Varadkar predicted that life in Ireland could be “pretty much normal” by August, with many of the restrictions placed on the country lifted by then.
Referencing evidence from countries that have successfully rolled out their vaccine programmes so far, like the UK and Israel, the Fine Gael leader said August would be his “best guess” for normality to return.
Speaking at the Department of Health this morning, Mr Varadkar said: “I think we have to get through another winter to be sure, but I do think life will pretty much back to normal by August.
“Life in Israel is pretty much back to normal, they're welcoming tourists again and they're having, not very large gatherings, but they are having mass gatherings.
"They kind of got to that point when they were at, where we would expect to be by August.
“So, I'm hoping that that's the month when things are relatively normal again.
“That doesn't mean that everything will be the same, but the vast majority of restrictions, you would hope to see gone by August of this year.”
However, he indicated that international travel and mass gatherings could still be off the cards for the summer.
While holidays abroad or large events are unlikely, Mr Varadkar gave further hope for a summer of socialising in Ireland.
He said he was "hopeful, and on the confident side of hopeful that we'll have indoor dining in pubs and restaurants in July".
This would be contingent on case numbers remaining stable, hospitalisations continuing to fall, and the vaccine rollout continuing apace.
A decision on indoor hospitality will be made towards the end of June, but the Tanaiste added that if he was in the hospitality business, he would be "planning for outdoors in June and indoors in July, subject to all the usual caveats".
In his address to the nation last week, the Taoiseach Micheal Martin confirmed that the hospitality sector will resume trading next month.
From June 2, hotels, B&Bs, self-catering and hostels will reopen, while on June 7, restaurants and bars can return for outdoor services with groups limited to six people.
Mr Martin said yesterday he is hopeful that fans and spectators can attend sporting events from July.
There was also positive Covid-19 vaccine news as the government begins looking towards the winter months.
Ireland is planning to purchase booster Pfizer vaccines for 2022 and 2023 which will likely be needed to protect against Covid-19 variants.
The news comes as the Department of Health is still considering a recommendation from the HSE on proposed changes to the vaccination programme.
This buy-in from Ireland for additional Pfizer vaccines confirms that it is likely the public will need a booster shot, perhaps annually.
From today, people aged 58 could begin registering for their jab.
Despite the strong demand from the public to receive their vaccines, the Health Minister said that while 24 hour vaccine centres could potentially be rolled out, he believes they may not be necessary given the current scope within the programme.
"The capacity within the vaccination centres coupled with the capacity within GPs, remember we have pharmacists as well and I'm hoping to see them play a bigger role, suggests that we wouldn't need to run the vaccines centres 24/7," Stephen Donnelly said.
“Ideally you wouldn’t want people having to go in at 2, 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.
"If we needed to run them late at night, early in the morning, then we can do that.
“If we need to run the vaccine centres 24 hours a day to meet the target of getting the vaccines out as quickly as possible, it is absolutely something we can do.
"But we all know that it's been very bumpy and we had some very serious downward revisions from AstraZeneca, for example, which made it more difficult."
Meanwhile, another walk-in Covid-19 test centre will open this week following an increase in cases over the bank holiday weekend.
The facility will open in Cavan town after the county experienced a spike in new coronavirus cases.
The centre will open from Friday to Monday only at Cavan Swimming Pool & Leisure Centre and people who do not have symptoms can attend for a free test.
It follows the closure of McCarren Meats, based in the town, this week due to an outbreak of the virus.
