Dr Ronan Glynn has said that the focus of any lockdown restrictions potentially easing after April 5 "will have to be on (the) outdoors."
Speaking at Nphet's latest press conference, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer expressed his gratitude to the Irish public for their continued levels of compliance on St Patrick's Day.
Health authorities reported 582 new cases of coronavirus in Ireland but thankfully, no further deaths occurred.
In recent weeks, various members of the government have provided an insight into the potential lockdown restrictions that might ease beyond April 5 with the constructions sector, the 5km travel limit and more outdoor gatherings to be allowed.
However, any reopening of the country will be done in a cautious manner.
Speaking tonight, Dr Glynn said: "The plan is to proceed very cautiously on the basis of the data that's in front of us, for as long as it takes. I'm hopeful that as we move into June, as those who have been most vulnerable are fully vaccinated and as we roll out millions of doses of vaccine to adults, that we'll be in a far, far brighter and better position than we are at the moment.
"Over the next while, we will need to continue to be cautious. There will be things that we can focus on - like, we've said for the past year that outdoors is much safer than indoors - and I think over the next couple of months, the focus will have to be on outdoors and obviously, we need to continue to look at the data and get to April 5.
"Between now and then, I'll ask people to do as much as they can to ensure we get to April 5 in the best position possible. I'm not going to say that we need tighter restrictions because the headline tomorrow will be Nphet calls for no ease of restrictions and so, we need to be cautious."
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On the issue of vaccines and Ireland's supply issues, Dr Glynn was optimistic that "8 out of 10 adults in this country will have at least one dose of vaccine available to them by the end of June."
"We all want to get more people vaccinated and of course, if the population is vaccinated then we'd be in a far stronger position. I'm less concerned about what happens day-to-day and week-to-week, I think we need to move away from that narrative and focus on the fact we've come through an incredibly difficult year and in a few short months, hopefully, we'll be in a far, far better position. All going well, 8 out of 10 adults in this country will have at least one dose of vaccine available to them by the end of June," he said.
Latest vaccination data, meanwhile, reveals 455,182 people had received a first vaccine dose as of Monday.
