Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has provided a welcome boost to the public who are fearing a Christmas lockdown - telling his colleagues that he is "sceptical" about imposing new restrictions.
The Fine Gael leader was speaking at a parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday evening.
He told Fine Gael TDs that bringing in new restrictions on people’s lives would not be warranted at this time.
At the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night, Mr Varadkar noted that the situation was stable or improving slightly and “we were doing substantially better than NPHET optimistic models and projections in terms of cases, numbers in hospital, ICU and deaths.”
He told TDs for this reason, he was sceptical that imposing new restrictions on people’s freedoms, family life and businesses would be warranted at this time.
However, he said there was a concern though that the Covid-19 situation has stabilised at a high level and if things went wrong in the run up to Christmas, they would go wrong from a very high base.
Party sources said there was a “genuine cause for concern” with people socialising more with Christmas and “the Government would carefully listen to NPHET’s advice on the matter tomorrow before making any decisions.”
Meanwhile, Dr Tony Holohan has issued a stern warning to the public in Ireland - saying that no group should feel that guidelines do not apply to them.
The CMO was speaking after a grim Wednesday saw the first case of the new Omicron variant recorded in Ireland.
No exact location has been confirmed but Dr Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory and member of NPHET, said it is a "current case".
Have your say on the latest restrictions below, or click here.
