With the HSE planning to administer almost a quarter of a million vaccines next week, An Taoiseach's well-flagged announcement of a phased relaxation of Covid restrictions continues to dominate the headlines. 

That story, and mostly-positive reaction to it, is everywhere this morning. However, the Daa's chief executive says the airline industry has lost another summer as travel restrictions continue.

His outfit announced a €284 million loss yesterday, while the Shannon Group was down €28 million last year. And this Irish Times piece opines that airlines are braced for a lasting 25% reduction in demand because business travel won't recover post-pandemic.

Meanwhile, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar says there'll be no mass return to office working until September.

In backlog news, the Government is exploring proposals to take driver theory tests online, passport production has been declared an essential service, and the Indo has this on councils gearing up to tackle litter this summer .

Elsewhere, the Pensions Authority has warned it may wind up the pension scheme for CIÉ managers and some other grades, as RTÉ speculates that the scheme's trustees may face prosecution. 

Overseas, dozens of people have been killed in a crush at a religious festival in northern Israel.

Finally, the Opinion Piece Of The Week Award goes to the Guardian's Aditya Chakrabortty for squeezing a highly-apt Great Gatsby reference into his critique of struggling Boris Johnson and his gang. Did he just happen to be reading it? Had he learned it off by heart, and was waiting for just the right moment? Did the Oxford Book Of Quotations helpfully open at exactly the right page? Who knows? 

It's our Hazel's last day in the Communications Unit, as she's starting a career break with the HSE media team next week. We'll miss you, Gavigan, and we thought we'd send you off with something Zen from Hamilton*. Wishing you all the best, and here's hoping we'll have more luck than George III when it comes to getting you back. 

Enjoy the May Day weekend.

Bernard

* Needless to say, I had help with this.