The Health Minister has said people can have bouncy castles in their back gardens for events such as Communions - but they should still only have a maximum of six visitors.
Stephen Donnelly said the most important thing to curb coronavirus spread is for everyone to limit the number of people coming to their house.
There have been particular concerns about gatherings such as Communion and Confirmation celebrations.
The Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn has said such events are 'part of the problem', but are not alone in driving the increase in household transmission.
He has highlighted other factors such as birthday parties and even neighbours going to each other's houses for a drink.
Currently, households visits are limited to six people from up to three households, although that limit is reduced to one other household for Dublin and Donegal.
'There'd be plenty of room on the bouncy castle'
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Minister Donnelly was asked about whether the likes of Communion celebrations can happen at the moment.
He said: "You could well have your Communion - you could have your mum, your dad, your brother, your friends, whatever it is, up to six people... there'd be plenty of room on the bouncy castle, unfortunately, because of that limitation.
"It's not that you can't do it - it's that you need to limit the number of people coming into your house or garden to six, and importantly from one other household."
He said families can also organise sleepovers for children - but again the visitor limits will still apply.
Minister Donnelly pointed to warnings from NPHET that coronavirus spread is happening mostly in private households - saying the rate of transmission in those settings is "unusually high".
He reiterated Dr Glynn's advice for people to halve their number of social contacts, as that will drive down the reproductive number of the virus.
Minister Donnelly also said there are no other countries facing further restrictions "imminently" - saying Donegal is being moved to level three as cases rose 'very, very quickly' in the county.
