A number of Government officials have dropped hints at just when we could see life in Ireland return to normal.
After an excellent April in our battle with the virus saw travel restrictions loosened, the month of May is set to move Ireland a number of huge steps closer to normality.
The ramping up of the vaccination rollout is continuing alongside that, giving everyone hope that the war with Covid-19 could soon be over.
Over the last few days, some Government leaders have even gone into specifics about what the summer could look like.
Three industries or sectors seem to be the key to the plan.
Pubs and restaurants
If all goes well, then on June 7, outdoor dining can resume in restaurants and beer gardens
Groups will be limited to six people.
Thankfully, there will be no requirement for the €9 meal rule to still be in place.
And the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar gave another positive update on Wednesday at the Department of Health.
He 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 everyday 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.”
Large gatherings/Concerts
A number of higher-risk activities will be considered at the end of June for later in the year including mass gatherings/events (including spectators) indoors and outdoors.
The Taoiseach said on Newstalk last night that they are keeping an eye on the UK for how the virus reacts to these events.
Over the weekend a video of a full nightclub with no one wearing masks went viral after the British Government urged people to attend as a trial event.
If all goes well, we could see large gatherings or concerts return by August.
Sporting events
Newstalk presenter Joe Molloy was straight up when asking the Taoiseach when fans could return to sporting events.
Mr Martin replied: "We would hope to do it this summer. We'll trial a number of events, we have a working group and an updated profile and plan.
"We've had a report on antigen testing, we have more vaccines.
"So we're looking at July, Government is working on plans towards that end.
"We're also learning lessons from what's happening in the UK."
"Back to normal by August"
But all of the above could have returned by August - that's according to the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
He 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."
