The Tanaiste has said he would be "happy" if all of Ireland's legal Covid restrictions were removed by March 31.
Leo Varadkar said earlier this week that he hopes almost all measures can be dispelled by that date as the country emerges from the worst of the pandemic.
His comments came ahead of a crunch NPHET meeting on Thursday where public health officials will consider what restrictions should be removed.
The rules are in place until January 30 but there have already been calls for the measures, particularly those placed on the hospitality industry, to be removed as early as this weekend.
It is expected that the closing time of 8pm for pubs and restaurants could be extended to midnight within days under the revised plans.
Restrictions on crowds at outdoor events and weddings are also set to be eased.
Following the crunch NPHET talks, Cabinet will meet on Friday to discuss the recommendations with Taoiseach Micheal Martin expected to make an announcement that night.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, Leo Varadkar said while he hopes all legal restrictions will be removed by March 31, he wants to see this done on a phased basis.
“I don’t think we should remove all restrictions in one [fell] swoop,” he told Newstalk's Hard Shoulder programme.
“I would like to see us do it maybe in two or three phases. In case things go off, it does make sense to me to do it in phases.
“The reason I mentioned March 31 as the objective, the target I would like us to set to have almost all legal restrictions removed, is that the emergency legislation for COVID passes, masks and closing businesses expires on March 31 and I wouldn’t like us to have to renew it.
“But if it can be done before then, I would be happy with that.”
The Fine Gael leader added that you don't have to be an expert to understand the risk of removing all measures in one go as Omicron cases remain high.
He did not wish to speculate about what rules might be relaxed from Friday or pre-empt any announcement from the Taoiseach.
This is because he didn't want to raise people's expectations, especially business owners in the hospitality sector, only for these to be dashed.
"They don’t want people scrambling to make plans only to have to cancel them; I think that is not fair," Mr Varadkar said.
“We will meet on Friday, or we have tentative plans at least for a Cabinet meeting on Friday, and we will be able to give people very clear information then and a bit of notice too.”
