The Education Minister and Kerry Fianna Fáil TD Norma Foley has welcomed the cautious and phased re-opening of the economy.
Minister Foley said businesses now have a clear plan for the coming months.
However, she cautioned that reopening is dependent on the number of COVID-19 cases staying low.
A number of measures in the re-opening plan go further than most Ministers expected - including the resumption of inter-county travel by May 10th and allowing three households to meet up in a garden from that date.
Vaccinated people will be allowed to meet non-vaccinated people indoors.
And there's plans for two non-vaccinated households to be allowed to meet up indoors from June 7th.
Meeting this morning some officials in the Department of the Taoiseach expressed concerns about how fast the new plan is going.
Sources speaking to this station said they were worried about a repeat of what happened in the run up to Christmas - and that trying to secure a "meaningful summer" could lead to a similar explosion of new cases.
One senior Minister said all the warning signals are still flashing orange, while Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said the risk of these changes is low to moderate.
All the moves have been signed off on by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan with government accepting his advice almost in its entirety.
Sources said they believe Dr Holohan is staking much of his hopes and confidence on the vaccination programme which should ramp up significantly again in the coming weeks.
Cabinet Ministers meet at 2.30 to sign off on the plans, ahead of an announcement from the Taoiseach this evening at 6.
