The Department of Health has confirmed that it will start to pay for IVF treatment for public patients starting next year.
Ireland had been the only country in the EU that didn't cover the cost of IVF treatment for its citizens.
This is despite as many as one in six couples requiring the treatment to have a baby, new studies indicate.
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Treatment can run into the tens of thousands of euros with one cycle of the treatment costing around €6000 but can rise if other treatment is required.
Clinical Director of the Merrion Fertility Clinic Professor Mary Wingfield said that IVF treatment can be as stressful as having cancer.
"Studies show that it's as stressful as having cancer, so to compound that by adding in the financial stress just really makes it so hard for people," Professor Wingfield said on Morning Ireland.
It's still yet to be worked out if the IVF payment will be open to everyone or will patients have to meet certain criteria.
"It's quite a complicated endeavour to fund IVF and to decide who will be eligible, and I'm not sure that any of those decisions have been made, and I'm certainly not aware of them or how it will be funded in Ireland, whether it will be that people will be funded to attend a private clinic or what the system will be."
Meanwhile Lidl has announced a new scheme that will allow for staff to be fully paid while undergoing fertility treatment.
Staff are being offered two days at full pay per treatment cycle.
Despite no publicly funded IVF treatment currently, as many as 10,000 IVF cycles are carried out in Ireland every year with prices ranging from €6000-€8,500 when treatments to improve the success rate are added.
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