Leo Varadkar has shared an update on Ireland's lockdown and the three areas that are most likely to reopen on April 5.
The Tanaiste explained any easing of restrictions will depend on several factors concerning the suppression of the virus.
However, he offered hope that the 5km non-essential travel limit could be extended, construction could be allowed to restart and "more outdoor activities" could return.
Mr Varadkar told Dublin's Q102: "The date for a decision taking effect would be April 5, so in the run-up to April 5 we'll look at four things: How the vaccine programme is going, are there variants we need to be concerned about, is the pressure on the hospitals being relieved, and are cases still stable or falling.
"And if they are, from April 5 we would be able to ease restrictions.
"The kind of things we're considering easing at that point would be the 5k rule, it would be allowing construction to go back, and it would be allowing more outdoor activities. Because outdoor activities are always safer than indoor."
But the Fine Gael leader was quick to dampen hopes that amateur sporting events and training could be allowed to restart.
He added: "There are two complications with that. The new variant is a lot more transmissible and we've yet to see how the school reopening is going to go. That will give us a good idea as to how outdoor training might go, particularly involving kids.
"And the second thing that we need to bear in mind is that it's often not just the sporting event itself, or the mass, or the particular event that people are attending that causes the virus to spread.
"It's all the stuff around it, it's people meeting up after matches to go to somebody's house, or in the car together, that's where the virus spreads, unfortunately."
