The Government will provide a full road map and timeline for the next phase of reopening society on August 31, the Taoiseach has confirmed.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will meet on Wednesday and provide a briefing to the Cabinet’s Covid sub-committee on Friday next week.

A full Cabinet meeting is scheduled for the following Tuesday before a public announcement on the road map.

Micheal Martin said there is “still a journey to go yet” with the peak of the current wave of infections not expected until mid or late September.

He said: “We’ll take those decisions next week, we’ll be making it very clear next week.

“I prefer that we do it in a comprehensive way, involving all sectors, because there’s still a significant number of sectors that are not open, or have not yet started in terms of indoor activities.

“For example, we have a range of indoor activities, entertainment, live music, the arts, there’s quite a range of activities that we need to give clear timelines for and we’re conscious of that.”

The road map is expected to include guidelines for the return of live entertainment and the return to office work, but the Taoiseach has suggested that mask-wearing and social distancing requirements will remain.

He told Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder: “I’m not going to get into the detail of what will be decided.

“I think social distancing is still with us now. The CMO has been at pains to point out that wearing a mask, social distancing, and so on is very important.

“And also that we haven’t reached the peak of this phase of Covid yet, that the numbers will continue to increase over the next number of weeks.

“It could be mid to late September before that peak is reached.”

Mr Martin also said he was “surprised” to hear reports that Culture Minister Catherine Martin was unhappy that her plan to reopen the live entertainment sector was not approved at a meeting on August 6.

Ms Martin has unsuccessfully tried to obtain a place on the Cabinet Covid sub-committee to make her case for the sector, but the Taoiseach said she will be allowed to make a presentation to it.

He said: “I would point out that in previous times, ministers who may have had particular issues in their particular departments have often presented to the Covid committee.

“There will be no difficulty in terms of Catherine Martin presenting to next week’s meeting.

“But these are not sectoral meetings. These are Cabinet sub-committee meetings, established at the outset, with a view to making recommendations to Government and Government then decides.”

He added: “I was surprised to hear that to be honest in the sense that the 6th was never billed as a decision-making meeting.

“But I do understand the frustrations of the sector because Covid has had a devastating impact on the entertainment sector.”

Mr Martin said it was never the intention to reopen everything at once, and that the step by step process to reopening society had worked.

“We never said that we’d open everything together at once. Because the overall impact of that together would have been to increase the disease levels to an unacceptable level too early,” he said.

“I think the phased nature of the reopening has worked in terms of the management of the Delta variant. I think that will be seen in the fullness of time.

“I acknowledge fully the frustrations of those who have yet to get the timeline and who are not yet open, of course I do.

“Because right throughout the pandemic, particularly since spring, as we’ve reopened one sector, the next sector has come knocking, correctly, on the door for timelines and indications as to when it will reopen.”