He said the Government will give "full clarity" on Thursday with a comprehensive statement about plans to reopen the country.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the Government is hoping to give people "full clarity" about Ireland's reopening over the coming months via a detailed statement on Thursday. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Martin added that he believes the "real prize" for the hospitality sector and other areas of the Irish economy will be a "long-haul" reopening of businesses. "We will make a comprehensive statement on Thursday, very comprehensive, and bring full clarity," he said. "We have given a broad outline to the sectors we are going to examine before the end of this month. That worked last month, we gave dates and timelines for the month of April, we have honoured those, so far so good. "We've taken the pressure off the health service, significantly, the Irish people have responded magnificently to the guidelines." The Taoiseach said that he understands how "devastating" the impact the pandemic has been for businesses, however, he is hopeful that Ireland can keep the sectors that reopen from having to close again. "What we open, we want to keep open this time, that's a key rationale to what we do and that's the real prize for the hospitality sector and the different sectors," he continued. "When we eventually take decisions to open the specific sectors or part of a sector, we want it to be for the long haul this time. "We do understand fully, the devastating impact that this Covid pandemic has had on the hospitality, travel, aviation, and tourism sectors. It has been very, very severe and that's why the supports will continue and that is why there will be no cliff-edge to those supports." Martin also confirmed that the Government will be attempting to give an outline for what sectors can reopen in June and July as well as May in the statement on Thursday, with hotels and third-level education also on the agenda after May. He said: "We have already outlined in respect of B&Bs and hotels and guesthouses, we will see what we can do there and give people some indicative framework."