It's understood that Cabinet are now mulling over moving the country to Level Five - the most stringent of the Government's Living With COVID measures.
Dublin Live has learned that Cabinet is discussing moving the entire country to Level Five for six weeks - right until the end of November.
Cabinet is meeting after the leaders of the three Government parties and the special COVID Cabinet sub-committee met with health chiefs this morning.
Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said last week that COVID was spiralling out of control. NPHET pushed for a six-week Level 5 lockdown at the weekend.
Ireland has reported record numbers of new cases in successive days - 1,283 infections including 408 in Dublin were confirmed yesterday evening with another three deaths from the virus.
It's not clear if schools will be closed should we move to Level Five - but earlier indications coming from the Dail were that both schools and creches would remain open.
Initially, the Government's website had said that even at the most strict rung on the Living with COVID ladder, schools would remain open.
Non essential retailers and services including hairdressers, barbers, toy shops and gyms will be closed.
However, that was updated in recent days and is now ambiguous - saying that the decision on whether to close schools and creches would depend on "recommendations based on situation and evidence at time".
Pubs, cafes and restaurants will only be able to serve takeaway and travel restrictions possibly in the order of 10 kilometres are also expected.
