DUBLIN, July 14 (Reuters) - Ireland looks set to enter the fourth and final phase of its COVID-19 lockdown next week, which will allow all bars and nightclubs to open and gatherings of up to 100 people indoors, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday.

"There has been an uptick in the number of new COVID cases in the last week or two ... (but) I don't think that the increase has been so enormous that at this stage it should prevent us moving to stage 4," Varadkar said.

He said he was hopeful that non-essential office workers, who have been working from home since March, might begin to return to their workplaces on a part-time basis in the coming weeks.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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