THE Republic will ease further COVID-19 restrictions from today, Monday, May 10.
Close-contact services, such as hairdressers, can reopen and click-and-collect retail can resume.
People will also be able to travel outside their own county for the first time in more than four months while sports training can resume.
The country has been at Level Five, its highest level of restrictions, since Christmas.
The easing of restrictions in the Republic of Ireland is part of a phased relaxation of the country’s strict Covid-19 lockdown announced by Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin in April.
Libraries, museums, galleries and other cultural attractions are also opening.
After receiving his first AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday, Mr Martin said the relaxations will give people “a significant psychological uplift”.
Measures allow people to travel for non-essential journeys outside their county and up to 50 people can attend weddings, funerals and other religious services.
Three households, or a group of six people, can meet outdoors, including in private gardens, and a vaccinated household can meet an unvaccinated one indoors.
Last week, North of Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann asked his counterpart in the Republic, Stephen Donnelly, for a meeting to discuss the potential spread of Covid-19 from cross-border travel.
The letter stated that both governments should be doing “all we can to prevent non-essential cross-border travel”, and “clear messaging” and enforcement should be used, if required.
Mr Swann called for the Irish government to elicit an “appropriate and proportionate” response to recent transmission data on both sides of the border.
It followed the news that seven cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 had been detected in the North of Ireland.
It is the first time it has been confirmed here, but three cases were detected in the Republic of Ireland last month.
Mr Donnelly said he did not believe new Irish cross-border travel restrictions were “warranted”, given the current Covid-19 situation although he expected to speak to Mr Swann about the issue this week.
In recent days, there have been calls for a ramping up of the Covid-19 vaccination programme to curb a spike in infection rates in Donegal.
Donegal currently has the highest rate of Covid-19 in the Republic and the Derry and Strabane Council area has the highest infection rate in the North.
Dr Tony Holohan, the Irish chief medical officer, has warned of the county’s persistently high infection rates.
It is particularly high in the Letterkenny and Milford electoral areas of the county.
A walk-in testing centre has opened up in Milford, Co Donegal
From 17 May, all non-essential shops can reopen to customers.
From 2 June, hotels, guest houses and self-catering accommodation will be permitted to trade.
All pubs, regardless of whether they serve food, along with restaurants are set to open up for outdoor service on 7 June.
The summer relaxation is premised on containing new variants and accelerating a vaccination programme that is well behind the North of Ireland’s which has administered over 1.4 million vaccines.
The Irish government’s target is that 80% of people will receive a first injection by the end of June, with 55% fully vaccinated.
That requires an average of one million people to be vaccinated in April, May and June.
The figures for April were behind schedule with the government stating it expected a major acceleration this month and next month with up to 450,000 vaccines a week expected to be administered in June.
The Stormont Executive will meet this Thursday to discuss the North’s current lockdown restrictions which remain in place.
All remaining hospitality businesses have been given an indicative date of May 24 to reopen.
But it is unlikely that date will be brought forward by a week, as some in the hospitality industry had hoped.
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