© Brian LawlessThe Crowne Plaza hotel, Santry, near Dublin Airport, where travellers arriving from one of 33 high-risk countries will stay during a mandatory 12-day quarantine (PA)
An unplanned Cabinet meeting is to be held on Friday night to discuss adding more countries to the State's mandatory hotel quarantine list.
The USA, Germany, France and Italy are among the countries that could be included in the controversial plans.
The meeting has been organised at short notice, but it is understood it is set to get under way at around 8pm.
© Provided by PA MediaTaoiseach Micheal Martin and European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne (Cate McCurry/PA)
Minister for European Affairs Thomas Byrne said if EU countries are added to the list, it will be "a temporary measure in the interest of public health".
"All countries in the European Union at various points have taken travel bans and we haven't done that, this is a measure that's necessary for public health," he told RTE Drivetime.
The issue has divided the Government, with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) pushing for the addition of more countries.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has opposed the measure, while the Attorney General has also raised concerns.
On Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the Attorney General's concerns were that the legislation underpinning mandatory hotel quarantine was grounded in "variants of concern".
However, health officials have also pushed for the addition of other EU countries without variants, where the incidence rate is 2.5 times Ireland's or above, or the 14-day incidence rate is above 500 cases.
Mr Martin said: "Those countries with the variants, that's both my priority and the priority of Government.
"That will happen, there will be discussions obviously in terms of working through this."
He added: "The public health advice has to be grounded within the legislative parameters, that's the only issue."
The Taoiseach said he was "of course" open to adding EU countries to the list, particularly countries where variants are an issue.
He was backed up by his coalition partner, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan.
Mr Ryan said on Wednesday: "Additional countries will be added - for some people that presents a real burden but it's a burden I think we'll have to bear because we want to err on the side of caution.
"I would expect that a sort of decision like this would probably be approved by Cabinet next Tuesday.
"It would probably take us a number of days after that to implement whatever measures, but that's what I was expecting."
An initial 33 countries were included on the list when it was first established, with a further 26 added last week. One has since been removed, bringing the current total to 58.
Austria is the only EU member state currently on the list.
The majority of countries are in South America, the Middle East and Africa.
Travellers are required to pre-book accommodation in a designated quarantine facility and to pre-pay for their stay.
The cost per adult traveller for a 12-night stay inclusive of all services is 1,875 euros.
The stay at the hotel could be reduced if a person receives a negative test for the virus taken on day 10 of quarantine.
The Tifco Hotel Group is the service provider for hotel quarantining in Ireland.