Hospitality chiefs are calling on the Government to lift the 8pm closing time early, before the end of the month.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan and NPHET will meet on Thursday to advise the Government on whether they should ease current restrictions.
Current rules are due to expire on January 30 and all indications from senior Ministers is that the Government will push ahead with reopening society on a phased approach.
The “mood within Government” is that the country should not lag behind other European countries in its reopening throughout February and March, a senior source has said.
CEO of the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI), Adrian Cummins said that he would like the lifting of measures to take effect once NPHET meets on Thursday, allowing the industry to reopen fully next week.
He said that the 8pm closing time was "effectively a lockdown for hospitality.”
He said that a phased return of the entire economy was needed, including the night-time economy.
Mr Cummins also called for an extension of the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme [EWSS] at its full rate until the end of March.
At present, the EWSS is due to be reduced next month.
However, two Ministers had doubts that there would be a return to normal trading hours.
One source said: “I think it could be wise to push for a later closing time instead and see what impact that has on the virus.
“It’s hard to tell what impact increased socialisation will have this time given that so many people had Covid in recent weeks and there has been a significant uptake of the booster vaccines.”
Another source said “it is time we get on and live with this” and said numbers in critical care have been stable which health chiefs and senior Government officials are “focusing on.”
However, both stressed it would all depend on what NPHET advise the Government on Thursday.
It is expected NPHET will give the green light for Cabinet to lift the 8pm closing time for indoor activities.
A source added: “The rules are disproportionate.
“A close contact that has their booster and does not have symptoms no longer has to isolate but yet people can’t go and watch a movie in the cinema after 8pm.”
Professor of immunology at Maynooth University, Paul Moynagh has said it looks like the Omicron wave has peaked.
But he said it is "difficult to be completely sure.”
He said testing recently has been "really saturated" and the positivity rate has been very high, but looking at numbers over the last few days it "certainly seems they've peaked" and are decreasing now.
Speaking to RTÉ, he said: "If you look at these waves they tend to be symmetrical, we don't really know why.
"So with Omicron, the incline was very, very steep, so we probably expect decline to be something similar and reflect that steep incline."
When asked if it is now time to start the lifting of restrictions, Prof Moynagh said he thinks it "probably is.”
He said the restrictions have been “ relatively ineffective” as it’s too difficult to control Omicron given it is so transmissible.
He said it would make sense to leave the easing of restrictions for a week or so because of the lag between infections and hospitalisations.
The World Health Organization's (WHO) Special Envoy on Covid-19, Dr David Nabarro has warned against an early lifting of restrictions on the hospitality industry.
He described Ireland's introduction of a seven-day period of isolation, reduced from ten, as "a calculated risk" but said that "balance" is the key word.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he also said that it is not yet entirely clear if the Omicron variant is in the early stages of being likened to a common cold.
He said: "Our anticipation is that this new coronavirus, that we first met at the beginning of 2020, will over time become a perfectly calm virus that does not cause major illness.
“That's where we think this virus eventually is headed but it's not there yet and that's why we're saying to everybody, it will be really difficult over the next few weeks."
Dr Nabarro also said Ireland needs to prepare for the possibility of another surge.
He suggested local restrictions could apply if there was an outbreak of the disease but Ministers have repeatedly ruled out localised lockdowns again.
Dr Nabarro said: "That means having plans for some degree of restrictions on movement, probably local, if we get a bad surge and suddenly health services get overwhelmed and people start to perish.
“You have to make your plans based on what we've learned about this virus and that it's really cunning and difficult to deal with."
