Minister Eamon Ryan has said there should be more “social life” outdoors soon, adding to the hopes for outdoor dining returning in May.
Momentum is growing among Cabinet ministers for a fast-tracking of the lifting of lockdown restrictions next month.
And it is beginning to look like we could have outdoor dining and pints as soon as May if the Covid case numbers continue to slide.
The comments from the Green leader follow those of Minister Simon Harris, who yesterday said there was “potential for more” easing of the lockdown in May, including “outdoor dining and the likes.”
Mr Ryan, one of the three co-leaders of the Government, was speaking to reporters on the way into this week’s Cabinet meeting in Dublin Castle this morning.
He said: “There’s one thing I have a sense of, I was out and about in my own county (Dublin) at the weekend, that outdoors activity is happening at scale.
“It was a lovely weekend, my sense was that everybody was really respectful, they were keeping their distance, it was using our great outdoors in the way that we should and people pretty much adhering to the regulations was my sense, so we shouldn’t give up on that.”
He added: “Outdoors, we can meet up and we can have a gradual return to social life, so let’s keep going with that.”
Mr Ryan also talked about the plans being discussed at Cabinet to extend the time between first and second Covid vaccine jabs, so as to get more people inoculated with a first dose quicker.
He said: “The advantage of extending slightly, and it won’t be a long extension, it will be 2 or 4 weeks longer, not 8 or 12, there are advantages that we might have her immunity quicker, disadvantages that some people might have to wait a couple of weeks to get full immunity.”
