Penneys have issued an update on their December opening hours plan as the Level Five lockdown looks set to end.
Government officials are currently meeting to decide on Ireland's next step when lockdown is lifted on December 1.
Non-essential retail stores finally look likely to reopen as the country is understood to be moving to a modified version of Level Three according to the Living with Covid roadmap.
It comes after Primark bosses in the UK said that stores there could open 24 hours a day to deal with the demand in the build-up to Christmas.
And Irish retailer Penneys has now claimed it would "welcome" an extension in opening hours which will allow the retailer to deal with a "higher anticipated" number of customers.
They said that longer hours will also reduce the length of queues in the stores at any one time.
Shop bosses added that "extensive" safety measures are in place for both staff and customers at stores across the country.
A Penneys spokeswoman told the Irish Mirror: “Nothing matters more to us than the safety and wellbeing of our employees and customers.
"In line with government guidance, we have closed our stores in the Republic of Ireland until December 1.
"We would welcome any extension of opening hours for our stores when we reopen in December as it will allow us to cater for the higher anticipated customer demand and help to reduce customer queues by spreading potential shopping hours over a longer period of time.
"We have extensive safety measures in place in our stores to help protect our employees and customers, including a strict social distancing protocol, limits on the number of customers allowed in store, Perspex screens at tills to protect employees and customers, mandating the use of face masks in-store and increased in-store cleaning.”
