NPHET has recommended extra Covid restrictions including a 5pm curfew on hospitality stay in place until January 30th.
The full Cabinet is now meeting to consider whether to accept the advice on pubs and restaurants - as well as reduced capacity at large outdoor events.
Still haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past Cabinet Ministers are reluctant to go against NPHET advice, fearing the full backlash of the public if it turns out to be the wrong decision.
They're looking at international evidence around whether Omicron is leading to increased hospitalisations due to the sheer number of new cases.
Most don't want to implement a 5pm closing time curfew on the hospitality sector - with some believing that could be negotiated back to a later time.
But some of the scenarios presented by health officials are very stark indeed with a peak as bad as January gone.
A month long curfew on hospitality would be a break from the current Government policy that boosters are the way out of this wave.
But that may be a break they'll have to take.
