“At the moment we are preparing a plan.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he hopes to be able to relax some of the coronavirus restrictions next month but added he did not want to give the public “false hope”.
Varadkar said the government is preparing a plan to set out the stages of opening the Irish economy and society.
Speaking on Prime Time on Tuesday night, he said he hoped the phased reopening would begin on 5 May.
“There won’t be any change to the restrictions until 5 May, but at the moment we are preparing a plan which we’ll have ready before then which will set out in a step-wise fashion, how we will reopen our economy, how we will reopen our society,” he said.
He warned that the public should not expect things to return to normal overnight and the first port of call will be areas with “the most benefit to our economy and society but the least risk in public health terms”.
Other countries, such as Denmark and Germany, are relaxing certain restrictions at the moment and Varadkar said the government is monitoring and will examine what happens in these countries.
However, three factors will decide if restrictions can be lifted; if the rate of virus spread is improving, if there is sufficient capacity in the health system to deal with a surge in cases and if there was enough testing and contract tracing available.
Varadkar said that if we are not at the peak of the virus in Ireland, we are very near the peak.
According to official figures, 730 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland while there are also 108 probable deaths in care home settings.
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