Covid restrictions including the 8pm pub curfew will be dropped on a “phased basis” from the end of the month, Leo Varadkar said yesterday.
With Omicron believed to be peaking right now in Ireland, he gave one of the most positive indications that life might be returning to relative normality.
The Tanaiste said the time is coming where the country needs to “move on” from restrictions.
Speaking on RTE Radio One’s This Week, he added: “We’ve had very strict restrictions in Ireland for two years now.
“Last summer, and the summer before that, we had the strictest rules.
“I don’t think that should be the case this summer.
“I’ll be pushing for a more ambitious, quicker reopening over the next couple of months.
“Nothing risky, nothing reckless, certainly something that’s in line with our European peers. I think it will be phased.
“I don’t anticipate that we’ll just remove all restrictions at the end of January or the start of February.
“I think it will be a phased process over the next couple of months.”
However, he said Ireland was among only a handful of countries where it had not been possible to go into the office or stand at a bar for two years. The Tanaiste added he hoped all restrictions could be finally eased later this year.
He said: “On many occasions we’ve acted out of an abundance of caution.
“But sometimes an abundance of caution can be an excess of caution. And we need to avoid that.
“We need to make sure that we are able to respond rapidly as well if there is a resurgence of the virus and that is a possibility.”
Mr Varadkar also said it was yet to be determined if some people may require a fourth dose of the vaccine.
The Government will meet this week and the Dail will return after its month-long Christmas recess as NPHET meet to decide on their latest advice on Covid management.
It’s expected that with the worst of the fifth wave soon set to pass, doctors and academics will give the green light for lifting of restrictions.
Last week Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly told the Irish Mirror if conditions in hospitals remain “stable,” this will give the Government room to further relax restrictions. The number of Covid patients in Irish hospitals has fallen week-on-week for the first time since the Omicron variant drove cases to record highs last month.
Ministers said they are increasingly confident of being able to end curbs introduced mainly on the hospitality and entertainment industry and that they will be guided by whether or not pressure on hospitals eases. Officials confirmed there were 965 Covid-19 patients in hospital yesterday.
A week ago, the number stood at 984 while the peak of Omicron saw 1,063 people test positive.
The numbers in hospital reached a pandemic high of just over 2,000 a year ago during Ireland’s deadliest wave. Hospitalisations tend to rise faster over weekends during waves of the disease in Ireland as more discharges occur on weekdays.
The number of patients requiring critical care has been stable throughout the Omicron wave and was 88 on Sunday compared to a barely manageable 221 a year ago.
Dr David Nbarro, of the World Health Organisation, gave even further hope of a return to normal life as he said Covid could soon be as mild as the common cold.
He told the Sunday Business Post, said: “There are only a small number of coronaviruses that affect humans.
“One is the common cold, and most of us believe that, eventually, this current coronavirus, the one that causes Covid-19 will become like a common cold virus.
“This would be one that we all get from time to time, that we have varying immunity to, and in most cases, it causes relatively mild illness.”
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