Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed that a big decision on Ireland's lockdown will be made at the end of next week.
The Fine Gael leader said that he expects non-essential retail, construction and personal services such as barbers and hairdressers to reopen at some point in May.
He has explained that an address to the nation is expected on Thursday April 29, with "clarity" set to be given on the plans for May.
However a decision on the return of aviation, pubs and restaurants would not be made until the summer.
Mr Varadkar told Dermot and Dave and TodayFM: "I do think we are getting into a space where we can give a bit more clarity.
"That is what we would intend to do by the end of next week. set out a plan, certainly for retail , construction and personal services to reopen in the next few weeks, by which I mean May.
"And the trickier ones are hospitality and aviation as there is a risk associated with them, but I think if we can do those three sectors, construction, retail and personal services first we can then focus on hospitality and aviation in the summer."
The Tanaiste has previously said the hospitality sector could see some form of reopening by June - and even suggested that indoor dining could be on the cards in the coming months.
He explained: “We’ve no detail on that yet but it is evident and increasingly evident that outdoor dining is much safer than indoor.
“But you know, I’d hope to get to the point where both would be possible, and you know I’m increasingly confident that both would be possible over the course of the summer but I don’t want to raise expectation either and give false hope and really it’ll be the end of April before we’re in a position to do that again."
