Taoiseach Micheal Martin has warned that Ireland will face restrictions for the next six months.
The Fianna Fail leader said that the roll-out of the vaccine will be balanced with suppressing the virus for the first half of 2021.
Speaking in his local newspaper The Echo, the Cork man laid out the timeline for a return to normality.
Mr Martin told the paper: "Luckily the vaccine has arrived through enormous efforts, research, collaboration between states, and pharmaceutical industry.
"We’ll be looking at restrictions for the next six months. It’s going to be a parallel process of vaccinating the public while at the same time keeping the pressure on the virus."
He added: "We’ve had a very good performance as a country, second wave in particular...and the impact on mortality has been quite low in comparison to other countries this time out.
"Then, alongside that, we’ve managed to keep the economy going. Now, there has been a big fallout, don’t get me wrong. In the first wave, construction took a big hit.
"Hospitality, travel, tourism have all taken big hits because of the nature of their business. Entertainment, music, and the arts, they have no audiences, so all of that has been very challenging.
"It’s a constant balancing of that, but the overriding issue will always be the protection of life and public health."
The Taoiseach is today meeting with other Cabinet Ministers ahead of making a restrictions decision on Tuesday.
The public will find out what is in store for later this month and for January as a whole at some point on Tuesday afternoon or evening.
