Some good news!

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has reaffirmed his hope of reopening hair salons and non-essential retail across Ireland from May. Varadkar told the Irish Independent that the Cabinet would meet late next week to consider easing restrictions further in May. “That would involve looking at personal services, like barbers and hairdressers; retail; more outdoor activities; religious services' and the full return of construction,” he said. “They’re the kind of things that we’re going to look at next week for May. I don’t want to particularly speculate beyond that.” This comes as last week he said he was "increasingly confident" that indoor dining and pubs will be able to reopen by July. Speaking at a press conference outside Government Buildings on Thursday, Varadkar said that although outdoor dining is evidently safer, he "hopes to get to the point where both would be possible." He said a phased reopening of the economy will begin in May and the government will have a plan at the end of the month to outline the easing of restrictions throughout the summer. When asked if pubs and restaurants will be included in that plan, the Tanáiste said: “We would expect to be in a position at the end of April to give an indication as to how hospitality might reopen across the course of June or July. “We’ve no detail on that yet, but it is evident and increasingly evident that outdoor dining is much safer than indoor. “But you know, I’d hope to get to the point where both would be possible, and you know I’m increasingly confident that both would be possible over the course of the summer but I don’t want to raise expectation either and give false hope and really it’ll be the end of April before we’re in a position to do that again.”