Tánaiste Leo Varadkar confirms non-essential retail and salons will open next month

He said that a phased reopening of the economy will begin in May.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed that non-essential retail and personal services such as hair salons will reopen next month.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland he said that the government is planning a phased reopening of these services, beginning in May. "So what we will do in two weeks' time, so the end of April, we will look at the plan for May," he said. "What we're planning is allowing more outdoor activities, a phase three reopening of retail, and of personal services." When quizzed on if this would include hairdressers, the Tánaiste confirmed that it would. "Yes, I’m not saying the 4th of May, that’s unlikely, but over the course of the month of May there'll be a phased reopening of personal services including hairdressers and barbers,” he added. "What we will also do in April, which is not far away now, is we will look at the plan for June and July." This comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he is "determined" to look at reopening non-essential retail and personal services in May. Martin said he is confident in the vaccination rollout and believes there will be room to look at the reopening of a "number of other areas" in the coming months. Speaking on Virgin Media News, he said: "It is challenging, and that is the nature of Covid-19, it was pointed out to me this morning that the task force has had to deal with 23 changes since the commencement of the vaccination programme. "I am confident that we are on track, I think we have made good progress, we have done what we said we would do in respect of the schools and lifting the 5k, we're determined to look at a number of other areas like retail and personal services at the end of this month to see what we can do in May."