Taoiseach Micheal Martin has indicated that people will be left with the option rather than it being mandatory to wear a face mask in some settings.
It comes as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn has indicated NPHET will give the green light for primary school pupils no longer needing to wear face masks in school at the end of February.
On the future of wearing face masks, Mr Martin said: “I think when we review that before February 28, we will give consideration to that.
“I personally am comfortable wearing the masks in shops, public transport and when going into crowded areas.
“That’s just a personal thing.
“I think more and more as we go along it will be more of a personal dimension.
“In other words, we do what we feel comfortable doing.
“That applies to shaking hands and each person can do it differently.
“There will be people with different perspectives on this.”
The Taoiseach said he gets the “sense” that Covid is particularly difficult in winter and there may be a “rationale” for masks to be worn if there is an outbreak in the future “that you go back to mask wearing.”
He added: “I think the key question for the public is when will it be mandatory and not mandatory, when will that lift?
“We take advice on that, but it is being kept under constant review.”
When asked if he would have done things differently, the Fianna Fail ladder said he will “give it a bit more time to evaluate it fully”.
Speaking to Spin South West, he said: “There are certainly things we did that we probably wouldn’t do again but let’s give it a bit more time just to evaluate this and see.
“The public health group is already being set up to see how we can embed this into the system now so that if other viruses emerge, we have a stronger public health system to deal with any future challenges we might have.”
