NPHET is set to consider a proposal to lift all existing Covid-19 restrictions by the end of the month, it has been reported.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan is due to lead a meeting of the expert group next Thursday to discuss the evolving situation here.
The CMO told a briefing for journalists on Wednesday that the removal of restrictions was "in play" for next week's meeting.
And the Irish Daily Mail reports that senior Cabinet members are in favour of the removal of all restrictions, with Dr Holohan telling them that they are likely to be surprised by NPHET's recommendation next week.
Dr Holohan also said he has written to National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) ahead of the crunch meeting to consider questions around "population immunity" following high case numbers in recent weeks.
"I think there are questions about population immunity and for that reason, I've written to the Niac asking them to give some consideration," he added.
"Given our experience now, both the protection that we've seen from severe infection for people who are vaccinated and boosted, and also the performance of the vaccines, in terms of not just the impact on symptomatic transmission, but the duration of that and how quickly that might wane.
"What might then be concluded, if you like, around the continuing objectives of a vaccination programme, and the objectives that it might have.
"I think it's prudent for us to now begin to start to give some consideration to that, and to have that inform our future strategies.
"I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We still need sufficient time.
"The detailed assessment of all of those questions, I think will come next week and we'll be in a better position having had a detailed Nphet discussion."
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Dr Holohan also addressed Israel's approach to administering a fourth vaccine dose.
Israel started administering fourth doses of the vaccine to citizens last week.
"I think it's not at all certain that is the right route to follow, and I'm not saying that it's wrong, but it's not certain that the route to follow is the Israelis and the way they've gone towards the fourth booster," Dr Holohan said.
"Europe at a licensing level, but also us as an individual country, are going to give consideration to this.
"The vaccines' primary function is to protect people against their infection becoming a severe infection and that's held up really well.
"It appears then that the level of protection that the vaccine then offers against symptomatic infection, or transmission, well it wasn't perfect, it does appear to wane quickly and repeatedly after each individual dose.
"We'll have to look at all of those kinds of things to say, what does that mean for a vaccine strategy into the future? I think we need to be cautious."
