Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin has said she is “hopeful” that nightclubs can reopen in February.

Minister Martin said the 8pm closing curfew is “awful” for music events, live entertainers and theatres.

However, she said “we have to go with public health advice but I am still hopeful” about the easing of restrictions next month.

The Taoiseach has said the 8pm closing time would not be considered before January 30.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said the lifting of current restrictions will be lifted on a phased approach throughout next month.

When asked if she can give a guarantee that nightclubs can reopen next month, Minister Catherine Martin told the Irish Mirror she is “hopeful for February” but added “we’ll have to see where we are.”

There is raised hope that restrictions will begin to ease on a phased basis in February and the pub closing time of 8pm will be removed.

Minister Eamon Ryan offered an optimistic prediction timeline, saying he was "very confident" we would see an easing of restrictions next month.

He told reporters: "I'm very confident we will be able to ease restrictions as we go into February, but the details of that we won't decide yet.

"First and foremost we still need to get through this difficult period, we still have very high case numbers so we shouldn't look too far forward, we should focus on getting the case numbers down, keeping the hospital numbers down now. Particularly the hospital numbers, that's the first priority.

"All the science we've been told says this will be a short wave, and if we can get through it with hospital numbers down we will be able to start lifting restrictions again."

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