Mary Lou McDonald hasn’t been “out on the town yet” to celebrate the ending of Covid restrictions.
The Sinn Fein leader indicated she would be doing so soon as she said now is “a time for optimism” in the pandemic.
Ms McDonald said: “I haven’t been on the town to let my hair down, but I know that many, many others were."
She added about being in Dublin City on Saturday: “I could see that a lot of people were out and about, there was a great atmosphere in the city and I’m assuming that was mirrored across the island.
“But it is balanced with people balancing this with a sense and an understanding that the virus hasn’t gone away and that we still need, all of us, to exercise our common sense.”
Ms McDonald also said: “I think it was described as us being at the beginning of the end - and not too soon - so this has to be a time now of optimism and purpose and all of the things that need to be done to make people’s lives better and real politics needs to kick in.”
The Sinn Fein chief was speaking in RTE’s This Week on Sunday afternoon as part of the radio programme’s series of interviews with party leaders.
