Hospitality venues, cinemas and theatres will have to close at 8pm each night, from tonight.
It's part of efforts to contain the spread of the highly-transmissible new Omicron variant.
The restrictions will be in place until the end of January, but are being kept under review.
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New financial measures aimed at supporting affected businesses are expected to be announced by government shortly.
Meanwhile, the Chief Medical Officer's urging anyone eligible for a booster to avail of it as soon as possible.
It has taken less than two weeks for Omicron to become the dominant strain of Covd-19 in Ireland.
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The variant now accounts for 52 per cent of cases - it comes as 5,124 new coronavirus infections have been confirmed.
