The Chief Medical Officer says Ireland is on track to lift COVID-19 restrictions in October.
Speaking at the Oireachtas health committee, Dr Tony Holohan said he cannot rule out measures being reintroduced in the future if a new virus strain was to cause issues.
However, the health official says the country is currently on course to ease restrictions on October 22nd - the day the vast majority of remaining restrictions are due to be scrapped.
He said: "We're going to express cautious optimism that will remain the situation.
"The scenarios that might arise that could give rise to [new] requirements will be potentially in relation to new variants and emergence of new challenges that - at the moment - we don't see any signs of on the international sphere."
Although almost all measures will be gone in a few weeks, other measures - such as wearing masks in shops and on public transport - will remain in place into the winter.
Dr Holohan also expects COVID-19 close contact rules could be relaxed for schoolchildren in the near future.
Currently, all schoolchildren who are close contacts of a confirmed virus case must self-isolate - a situation which has led to an estimated 12,000 children being temporarily out of school.
This may be changed so those symptoms would not have to isolate.
Dr Holohan says he hopes new advice will be issued soon.
He said: "We're not that far away from being able to have that certainty if it's there.
"We remain hopeful that we'll be in a position to change that in the near term - not just for school children, but in terms of testing, contact tracing and the wider public health management of society as a whole."
