Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told a special committee on Covid-19 that Ireland "could be looking at another national lockdown".
The comments come as Ireland records another spike in cases today with 164 more people testing positive for coronavirus here.
The Minister said the country is at a "tipping point" in dealing with the latest response to the disease and said "we have to take this deadly serious".
Stephen Donnelly was responding to recent criticism from the GAA who he said "singled out" the Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn over recent measures banning spectators at sports grounds.
He said: "I heard a lot of criticism from the GAA including singling out the Chief Medical Officer which I have to say I take exception to.
"The Chief Medical Officer's job is to advise me and to advise Government and his only focus is on saving lives.
"The easiest thing in the world for NPHET to do would have been to say just close down all sports.
"We're at a tipping point, we could be looking at another national lockdown. We have to take this deadly seriously.
"And it would have been quite reasonable for them to say, 'For the next three weeks in order to protect the country and lives we simply have to stop sports'.
"To their great credit they didn't do that."
Ireland continues to see rising cases across the country with Dublin recording a whopping 93 new cases while Kildare records 22.
10 have been recorded in Tipperary while nine have been recorded in Cork.
Carlow sees a rise of eight cases today while Offaly and Waterford see a rise of six each.
The remaining 10 cases are in Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth and Roscommon.
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