Good morning colleagues, 

After five months of tight public health restrictions, today sees the return of non-essential retail by appointment, hairdressers and barbers, an easing of the rules around outdoor meetings and the resumption of religious worship in churches.

Let's extend our good wishes to all of those workers (around 100,000 of them) returning to work this week, as the HSE reports it expects to vaccinate up to 270,000 people next week, the highest number yet in the rollout.