The Government is considering tighter travel restrictions for people arriving in Ireland from Britain.
Longer quarantine periods for unvaccinated passengers are being looked at due to the spread of the Delta variant in the UK.
Ministers are said to be growing increasingly concerned at the threat from the COVID-19 strain that originated in India ahead of a further easing of restrictions.
There have been 126 cases of the variant recorded in Ireland so far, but there are no plans to delay the start of indoor dining from July 5th or international travel on July 19th.
Dr Ilona Duffy, a GP in Co Monaghan, says the cases associated with the Delta variant are likely higher and that there is a need for caution.
However, she told On The Record with Gavan Reilly that the country's continued reopening does not need to be slowed down as long as the vaccination rollout continues at pace.
"The big concern is that the UK were the ones we were looking to and seeing vaccines being rolled out and the opening up," Dr Duffy said.
"But now we're seeing the Delta variant becoming the dominant virus present.
"They are now at the highest rates of COVID since February so the real concern is this absolute is spreading faster, it's a very virulent, very contagious form of the virus."
She added that this "is of huge concern".
"As we know, unless you've had your two doses of the vaccine, you can't really deem yourself as safe from serious illness and even with it, all the vaccines don't have the same level of protection against it as they did with the other variants," she said.
"Here in Ireland, so far, so good, we only have 126 cases but we know that's an underestimate of it because we're not actually doing the genetic sequencing of the viruses on all tests that are being done and all positive tests that are coming in.
"So we can know it's probably higher than that and we're going to have a delay before we see it because there is a lag in time between somebody getting infected and then becoming symptomatic and then getting tested."
On whether the easing of further lockdown restrictions should be slowed down in response to the threat of the Delta variant, Dr Duffy said while Ireland needs to monitor the situation in the UK, we do not need to delay reopening plans.
A woman wheels luggage in Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport. Credit: PA"I think the concern is, as we continue to open up, we always knew we would see our numbers rise but there was always hope that it would be contained and it would be OK because people are vaccinated," she said.
"I think because we still have the limit on travel in and out of the country, but especially in, we're not seeing [as many cases] as we might when we start opening up.
"And if we see people using the vaccine passports and doing more travel then absolutely we will see not only this variant but probably other variants coming into the country.
"So can we manage? I think once we're vaccinating more people and as we're aware, most of the high-risk people should be vaccinated at this stage, so we should not see a similar rise in hospital admissions and deaths that we saw previously.
"It's about doing it in tandem.
"So should we stop what we're going at the moment? No, I don't think so but I think we will be watching and learning closely from the UK on how they're handling it."
