The country's top health officials are considering allowing cafes, restaurants and retailers to reopen by mid-summer.
According to The Irish Times, people may also be allowed to holiday within Ireland by late summer.
It is part of a plan to gradually reopen the country on a phased basis between May and September.
The government is expected to reveal details of the plan on Friday, after the National Public Health Emergency Team meets.
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Schools are expected to be given the all-clear today to carry out their own assessments of Junior Cert students in the coming weeks.
It follows a U-turn on how to replace the exams, which have been cancelled due to COVID-19.
Under the new plans, pupils will have tests and assessments before the summer - rather than wait for the next academic year.
There's been widespread opposition to the original plan to replace the June exams with school-based assessments in the autumn.
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The coronavirus has now killed more Americans than the Vietnam war.
More than 58,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the US, and there have been more than a million cases.
The States accounts for a third of the world's three million cases.
Spain has the second highest number of cases, at 232,000.
Meanwhile, nurseries and primary schools in France will reopen from May 11th - as lockdown measures there are eased.
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Questions have been raised over the US Vice President Mike Pence’s decision not to wear a mask while touring a medical research facility.
Mr Pence, who leads the US COVID-19 taskforce, was the only person pictured not wearing a mask on a visit to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota yesterday.
The move was in direct contravention of the clinic's own policy and advice from the US government's body for disease control.
In a tweet that has since been removed, the clinic said it had informed the vice president of its mask policy before his arrival.
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The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has expressed its deep concern about the “abuse and vitriol” faced by one of its members at a checkpoint yesterday.
The association said the incident was livestreamed to social media and viewed over 122,000 times.
It said the behaviour “crossed the line of acceptable questioning of our role in this public health crisis” and noted that gardaí are “playing a crucial public health role - members who are putting their own lives at risk.”
The association is writing to the Garda Commissioner about the incident.
