Leo Varadkar has hinted that indoor pints and dining could return for pubs and restaurants sooner than we think.
Mr Varadkar said he was confident that, if we can keep the virus under control, pubs and restaurants will be able to return for outdoor dining on June 7, in line with the government's roadmap.
And indoor dining could follow a month later in July, with the Fine Gael leader predicting a summer similar to 2020.
He told Newstalk Breakfast: "I would tend to look to the small number of countries ahead of us in the vaccine programme, places like the UK or Israel for example, and if things work out there, if there isn't a resurgence of the virus then I think we can be confident that we will have outdoor hospitality from June 7 as planned, and from July we'll be able to go to indoor dining.
"I think you'll see a summer similar to the one we had last year, not normal but with indoor dining, pretty much all businesses open, gatherings of a certain size being allowed both indoors and outdoors."
And the Tanaiste also said we can look forward to the return of foreign travel, but warned that it is still months away.
On when Irish tourists could return to the skies, Mr Varadkar added: "I think as the Taoiseach indicated yesterday maybe late in the summer or early autumn in terms of people being able to fly.
"And even then you just don't know whether or not there will be an outbreak in the country you want to fly to."
