The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin has said that "enough is enough" and that she will push for a return to live music in September.
The Government's Covid sub-committee is meeting on Friday morning for crunch talks about the future roadmap for the reopening of the county.
And one of the biggest issues in recent weeks has involved live music, with a number of artists furious after seeing crowds of 40,000 around Croke Park for Gaelic sports while they were refused permission to perform similar gigs.
Speaking on her way into Cabinet this morning, Ms Martin said she sympathised with these artists: "I want to see an easing of restrictions in September for our musicians and our artists. I believe they've waited long enough and I want to see them getting back to performing, doing what they do best and earning a living again.
"There's been a lot of changing the goalposts and I'm with them in saying enough is enough. At the minute, we have silence for indoor music and I think we've had enough of that silence and I want to hear music again."
Ms Martin noted that Dr Tony Holohan's wish to have over 90% of people aged over 16 should be fully vaccinated before significant Covid-19 restrictions are lifted was "a hard target"
However, she also believes that she has the support of a lot of her colleagues in Government.
"We have support. I've had informal and formal talks in the last week and they see that urgency to let people earn a living again, we all want to hear that music again, let's see what can be done in the best possible way." she said.
Ms Martin added that they would be looking at a number of potential routes to stage Electric Picnic.
"That's something I'll be discussing with my colleagues today. We'll be exploring all possible options, obviously there's a planning issue but I want to see what we can do to facilitate it. My concern is for all musicians so my focus is on all of them."
