Leo Varadkar has told his party he wants to set a deadline of March 31st to end almost all legal Covid restrictions.
He told a meeting of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party the waning severity of the Omicron variant combined with large amounts of immunity in the population mean restrictions should be eased quickly over the coming weeks.
However, he noted some measures like mask wearing, staying at home if you're symptomatic and Covid passes for international travel will likely stay into the summer.
Meanwhile, Minister Stephen Donnelly has suggested some Covid restrictions could be eased this month.
NPHET meets on Thursday to make a recommendation to Government, with a Cabinet meeting possible on Friday.
Members of the Government backbenches are pushing for the scrapping of the 8pm closing time for the hospitality sector.
11,683 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland today.
5,767 of which were reported positive PCR tests, while 5,916 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.
There are 979 COVID-19 patients in hospital, of which 93 are in ICU.
