Micheal Martin has guaranteed that mass will return next month and added that the retail, hairdressers and more construction is likely as the public’s good behaviour continues to pay off.

Speaking on his way into this week’s Cabinet meeting in Dublin Castle Tuesday morning, the Taoiseach was upbeat when he said the public’s adherence to the restrictions has “borne fruit”.

The Taoiseach said the Government’s “strategy is working”: “I welcome the fact that the Cabinet is back in Dublin Castle this morning, meeting physically for the first time this year, another further sign of the progress we are making as a country against the Covid-19 virus.

“The strategy is working that we’ve been working on for the past while in terms of getting the case numbers down, getting hospitalisations down and indeed getting ICU numbers down, and that is critical.

“And people’s adherence to the guidance has really borne fruit in relation to the numbers coming down.”

Micheal said the return of religious services is near the top of the agenda for reopening in May, along with some retail, personal services like hairdressing, and more construction.

He also said that while the lockdown measures have been particularly tough on pubs and restaurants, he would not discuss whether an early reopening is being considered.

He added: “In terms of hospitality, it has suffered more than most, over the longest period of this pandemic.

“But again, we have set out the areas that we will examine for May towards the end of this month, we’ll do that next week.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that three cases of a new Indian strain of coronavirus were detected in Ireland yesterday. Two were as a result of travel and one is still under investigation.