Pubs and restaurants look set to be allowed to reopen next month, but we still don't know when exactly that will be.
Ireland is due to exit the current Level Five lockdown on December 1, however the hospitality industry won't be reopening on this date.
Currently the government is looking at a range of possible dates between December 4 and 11, the Irish Independent reports.
It comes after the National Public Health Emergency Team recommended that pubs and restaurants should be limited to take-away services only over Christmas.
The body is said to be at loggerheads with Government over restrictions for the festive period.
The group of health experts also wants to limit the number of people allowed visit each other indoors to six, from one other household only, once restrictions ease next week.
But the Government is expected to kick-back against the latest recommendation, and hopes to reopen restaurants and bars that serve food.
The outlook is more grim for so-called "wet pubs" that don't serve food, as they are seen as very unlikely to reopen this year.
The news comes after Ireland recorded another 335 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday.
Meanwhile, three more people have lost their lives after battling the deadly virus.
This brings the number of cases diagnosed in Ireland to 71,494, while the death toll now stands at 2,036.
As of 2pm yesterday, there were 246 patients in hospital fighting the disease, 35 of which were in intensive care.
There have been 15 new hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Of the cases notified on Thursday, 171 were women and 162 were men.
The average age of those infected was 35, while 64% were under the age of 45.
Dublin saw a worrying rise from recent days, recording 119 new cases.
Kilkenny was the second worse off with 29, followed by Limerick (23), Donegal (20) and Tipperary and Cork (19).
The remaining 106 cases were located in 19 other counties.
