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It is understood that the State’s public health team has given the green light to a faster than expected easing of restrictions from May 10th onwards.
Groups of three households, or a group of six people from any number of households, may be allowed to meet anywhere outside - including private gardens - after May 10th.
Hotels and guesthouses will reopen no sooner than June 7th, under the latest recommendations from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
A big part of the plan involves a vaccine dividend, allowing vaccinated people to meet indoors at certain stages.
For those who have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, they can meet indoors one week after their second dose. This will be two weeks for those who have received Moderna.
For those who have received Johnson and Johnson, they can meet two weeks after receiving their single shot.
And for those who have received AstraZeneca, they can meet four weeks after their first dose in what is a significant boost for this group.
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Wednesday evening that the Government must have a plan in place by the end of May for the phased return of international travel.
Sources have said that Mr Varadkar told the meeting that the aviation sector and airports needs a plan in place by then.
It is understood Mr Varadkar also said he wants to see a trial of an outdoor event such as a Leinster match similar to a recent experiment in Barcelona.
Researchers in Spain found “no sign” of higher levels of infection among people who took part in a large test concert last month in Barcelona. Six people tested positive within 14 days of attending the gig but the incidence was lower than that seen in the general population.
Mr Varadkar has also rowed in behind comments made earlier by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan that the main distinction in hospitality should be between indoor and outdoor, as opposed to between outlets that serve food or not, it is understood.
The Government will on Wednesday evening examine allowing outdoor hospitality to resume at the end of May, the scrapping of the “substantial meal” rule for pubs, and a late May reopening for personal services including hairdressers and barbers.
Senior sources said they are “hopeful” that outdoor dining could reopen somewhere in the week of May 24th but it is subject to agreement by Ministers on Wednesday evening.
Well-placed sources said a phased approach similar to April is being considered for next month, with activities seen as having higher levels of risk likely to resume in the second half of the month.
This would also see non-contact training for adult sports teams potentially restarting towards the end of May. The resumption of driving tests is also said to be under consideration.
Government sources are also hopeful of delivering further “vaccine bonuses” to those who have been immunised, although the pace of change here is likely to be largely determined by advice currently being worked on by the Nphet.
One potential avenue would be for increased levels of household mixing involving vaccinated people.
The Government is said to be “determined” to relax rules on religious gatherings, with numbers permitted at Mass and other occasions of worship likely to be pegged around 50 – although the size of the venue will also be taken into account.
Less risky activities which are under consideration for earlier in the month include the resumption of click and collect retail services, with the opening of garden centres also under consideration. Further non-essential retail may be more generally opened later in the month, sources said. The main priority of Government will be to keep open what is reopened.
Consideration is also being given to allowing more households to meet up outdoors later in the month than is currently allowed, subject to advice from Nphet, but garden visits are unlikely to be permitted.
The Covid-19 oversight group of senior civil servants is also meeting on Wednesday, it is understood. This meeting, alongside the Nphet advice, will determine much of what takes place next month.
In addition to outlining the reopening measures planned for May, the Government is expected to outline steps taken to restart the hospitality and internal tourism sectors in June. Broadly, this is expected to include inter-county travel in June, as well as the reopening of guesthouses, B&Bs, and hotels.
Hospitality
However, well-placed sources said difficult issues remain to be sorted out. For example, how the reopening of domestic tourism interacts with the wider reopening of the restaurant sector, with many hotels reliant on indoor dining rooms and restaurants to provide their service.
Sources said one option would be to permit indoor dining in hotels, but restrict it to outdoors for other operators during June, however all of this is likely to be the subject of intense discussion and debate on Wednesday and Thursday.
Discussions are also ongoing in Government over whether, once the hospitality sector reopens, a distinction between “wet” pubs and those which serve food should be retained, as the emphasis shifts towards outdoor and well-ventilated activities.
Mr Ryan has indicated that the €9 substantial meal rule in pubs will be scrapped.
Throughout the pandemic, people had to buy a meal with a value of at least €9 if they were in restaurants and pubs.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Ryan indicated that the distinction between gastropub and pub will not feature this summer.
“We don’t want all those systems where people would get a certain meal, it was kind of a false division. I think it will start outdoors and I don’t think it will be whether it will be divided between food or not. Outdoors or indoors will be the difference.”
When asked if this meant the end of the €9 meal, he said: “I think we have learned outdoors is safer, not whether you are having chicken nuggets on top of it.”
Mr Ryan also said the reopening of hospitality throughout June will coincide with the lifting of intercounty travel ban.
“Hopefully June will see the summer start in earnest.”
The precise date for when hospitality, inter-county travel and domestic tourism might restart may, however, prove contentious, with Nphet likely to push for it to happen after the June bank holiday, while some in Government would prefer it to encompass the public holiday.
The Nphet meeting started just after 10am and is focusing on its recommendations for a further easing of restrictions from May 4th.
Once Nphet gives its advice to the Government on Wednesday afternoon, the chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan, and the HSE chief Paul Reid, will brief the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 – including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Mr Ryan, other Ministers and senior officials on Wednesday evening.
It will then decide on the recommendations to go to a full Cabinet meeting, which is expected to convene on Thursday.
The Taoiseach is understood to have indicated at Cabinet on Tuesday that the Government may signal an intention to reopen domestic tourism in June, but sources stressed that this is contingent on continuing suppression of the virus.
Targets
Speaking on Shannonside FM on Wednesday morning, Mr Martin said the Government’s strategy since January had worked.
“The people have responded to it, it has been very difficult for people but the majority of people want the restrictions to work but they adhere to the restrictions, and by adhering to restrictions we have one of the lowest incidences across Europe”.
“Whatever we open, we want to keep open,” he said.
He said there would be a “comprehensive announcement” tomorrow evening, but that progress on vaccinations had opened up room for the removal of some restrictions.
He said that the Government is still “going after” its target of giving 82 per cent of the adult population a first vaccine by the end of June, but that there had been setbacks in recent weeks.
“ Now, obviously, there have been changes to the schedule, there have been delays. We’ve lost a number of weeks because of the various advices that have come in from Niac, particularly in relation to AstraZeneca”
“There will be substantial administration of vaccines this week, throughout May and throughout June,” he said, promising the country would be in a very different position at the end of June.
He conceded there would be lower deliveries of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine this month due to an issue relating to an FDA audit of one of its plants in the United States, but said deliveries of more than 600,000 by the end of the quarter were still “on track”. He said that there is no choice for people on what vaccine they receive, and that “the object is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can”.
GPs
Meanwhile the Covid lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), Dr Mary Favier, who is also a member of Nphet, has warned that any easing of restrictions has to be balanced between the risk of Covid and the risk of the harm from ongoing restrictions.
Dr Favier told Newstalk Breakfast that the ICGP would like to see a cautious easing of restrictions as she understood the impact they had on the public.
People aged under 50 years who are not immunocompromised and have had a Covid-19 infection in the last six months should receive just one dose of a vaccine, at which point they should be considered fully vaccinated, the Cabinet agreed on Tuesday.
In addition, pregnant women are to be offered faster access to vaccines after the Cabinet approved a series of recommendations from National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac).
However, Dr Favier cautioned that supply remained an issue and the logistics would be challenging for GPs. Of the 1.4 million vaccinations to date, half had been administered by GPs, she said.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that as a person in his forties he expects to get vaccinated in June.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Donnelly said that while there was “nothing magic” about the last day in June, the Government’s vaccine rollout programme was on track and it was their job to get as many vaccines into as many people as quickly as possible so that more people would be protected.
Meanwhile, there are 148 people in hospital with Covid-19, with 47 of those in intensive care (ICU).
The latest figures from the HSE show that Mater Hospital in Dublin has the highest number of Covid-19 patients at 16, followed by Tallaght Hospital (15) and University Hospital Limerick (14).
A further 426 new cases and 10 deaths linked to Covid-19 were reported in the State on Tuesday.
As of Sunday, 1,398,061 vaccine doses had been administered. Some 998,134 people had received one dose, and of these 399,927 had received their second dose.