Senior Government ministers have been discussing a “compromise” reopening of bars and restaurants indoors from next Monday.
The proposal, which will also be discussed at Tuesday morning's crunch Cabinet meeting, would see extra restrictions introduced for indoor dining.
This would include less customer capacity and tables further apart indoors.
And it would be accompanied by a new public health message urging people who have not been vaccinated not to eat or drink indoors for the time being.
One senior Government source told the Irish Mirror that this would be a “soft version” of the idea mooted briefly that only vaccinated people would be allowed avail of indoor dining.
However, this was discounted as impractical and impossible to police as there is no widely used vaccine certs or documentation.
The chances of the compromise getting through were described as “50/50” by a senior source last night, but they added that there was “a big push” to get some sort of reopening.
The option to extend the indoor closure for another few weeks is still firmly on the table this morning, but Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, yesterday said it is “not inevitable.”
The Cabinet’s Covid subcommittee will sit late into the night as they digest the latest advice from the medical experts at NPHET.
It is likely that they will accept the thrust of NPHET’s recommendations.
But there is also serious pressure coming from business and wider society to reopen.
