Face coverings are to be made mandatory on public transport.

Transport Minister Shane Ross will bring a memo to Cabinet tomorrow calling for masks to be mandatory on buses, train and Luas services.

He will tell his colleagues that public transport capacity needs to be increased to 50% as more people return to work.

That would require the scrapping of the two-metre rule, with mandatory masks to be brought in in its place.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar previously said he would prefer to encourage people to wear masks of their own accord instead of enforcing compliance.

He warned that making masks mandatory could throw up some “real difficulties” for people who have a good reason not to wear one.

Cabinet is expected to sign off on moving to Phase Three of reopening when the current group of ministers meet for what is likely to be the last time.

With reporting from Seán Defoe