Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has signalled that people could be back drinking indoors by July.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said that he hopes the vast majority of restrictions would be lifted by the end of summer.
And he offered fresh hope that people will be able to dine and drink indoors once again as restrictions are eased.
Mr Varadkar said: "I will still be hopeful, and on the confident side of hopeful that we'll have indoor dining in pubs and restaurants in July.
“It's just that July is quite far away, and we can't really make a call until the end of June.
“But you know cases are stable, hospitalisations and ICUs are falling.
“And every day tens of thousands of more people are vaccinated so you know, if I was in the hospitality business I'd be planning for outdoors in June and indoors in July, subject to all the usual caveats.”
However, Mr Varadkar warned that he believes that winter will still pose a challenge as he pointed to success in Israel and the UK with their vaccine rollout.
Speaking at the Department of Health, 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.”
The Tanaiste was speaking as the government has plans to buy booster Pfizer vaccines for 2022 and 2023 which will likely be needed to protect against Covid-19 variants.
Under the government's current plan for easing restrictions, pubs and restaurants will be permitted to serve food and drink from June 7.
A concrete date is yet to be given for the return of indoor pubs but Mr Varadkar's latest comments will offer hope to many publicans for a return to normality relatively soon.
