Patients with COVID-19 in Dublin could be moved to intensive care units outside the capital.
There are concerns Dublin hospitals could reach capacity in ICU, after the Mater Hospital said its intensive care unit is full and patients had been moved to the high dependency unit instead.
The HSE's director of acute hospitals, Liam Woods, said transferring patients to ICUs in other counties is not being ruled out:
He said: "Is there a point in time at which one would consider moving patients from Dublin? Of course, if the situation became particularly challenged, that would be an option.
"It's not happening at the moment because it's not necessary, but should the situation arise it is something that we would look at and individual hospitals would engage with.
"The intensive care community work very actively normally across the country and there is a normal movement of patients across the country. Normally that's a movement towards Dublin, actually."
