There is no longer a need for the "draconian" emergency measures that were in place during the pandemic, according to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
He said there is now "cautious optimism" amid indications that "we are past the peak of this wave" of Covid-19 cases.
It comes as 10,839 new infections were reported today, including 5,750 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 5,089 positive antigen tests registered through the HSE portal.
This is an 83% reduction compared to this day last week when 19,866 new cases were reported.
There were 1,472 people in hospitals around the country as of 8am this morning. This is down 63 on the same time yesterday.
There were 59 of these patients being treated in intensive care units, up one from yesterday.
Earlier, Minister Donnelly told RTÉ's News At One: "The powers that were in place, obviously were very draconian powers. And they were emergency powers.
"What we're doing is we're moving from the emergency phase of Covid to a medium term living with Covid.
"There is there is still public health advice around masks.
"However, the regulations, the legal requirements around people being fined and potentially being arrested, we thought it was important that we moved away from that."
Minister Donnelly said the BA.2 strain now accounts for 95% of all of the cases, but the advice from the Chief Medical Officer remains that "quite serious measures" would be required to curb the spread of the virus.
He said: "If public health measures were to be used to flatten the curve, it wouldn't be just masks we would need. We'd be looking at a whole suite of really quite serious measures.
"So the question is, why are we not considering that? Yes, there are a lot of patients in hospitals with Covid and it is causing huge pressure, but when we look at the rate of severe illness, those in ICU, actually the numbers are very low.
"We've had a very high case load. The five-day rolling average is falling. The positivity rate is falling. The indications are, hopefully, now that we are past the peak."
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly live on News at One: Read more: https://t.co/go6uTjsFyO https://t.co/sRYACTyyTm
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 1, 2022
He said that in other countries there has been a rapid decline in cases once the peak is reached.
The latest advice to the Government from the Chief Medical Officer notes that as of 31 March, the five-day rolling average was 5,760 - a reduction of 22% compared to a week earlier.
Dr Tony Holohan also noted that of the 58 patients in ICU with Covid-19, the number whose primary reason for admission was coronavirus decreased from 29 on 22 March to 18 a week later.
Over a quarter (28%) of cases in ICU were unvaccinated, according to HSE data.
He said "a significant proportion" of detected infections continues to be identified in older people with 74% of hospitalised cases aged 65 or older.
The CMO also warned that the Covid burden on acute hospital care also remains "significant" with the acute hospital system under "considerable pressure" particularly in congested emergency departments.
As of 30 March, about 60% of people aged 35 to 44 had received a booster vaccine along with half of those aged 25 to 34 and 42% of those aged 16 to 24.
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Seven-day isolation period 'under review' - Varadkar
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that increasingly the Government is going to advise people that if they are under 55 and medically well, they will not need to test for Covid-19.
He said: "If you have symptoms, you need to isolate and once your symptoms are gone for two days then you are free to return to relatively normal life.
"But for people over 55 or people with a medical condition you should get a test and if you test positive then, at least for now, it is seven days' isolation and three days of precautions."
Mr Varadkar said the seven-day isolation period was "under review".
The Chief Medical Officer is going to come back to Government with advice in the next few weeks but "I don't anticipate a significant change".
He added that the pandemic is not over but the emergency phase of the pandemic is over.
The Tánaiste said that 700,000 people have not had a booster yet and stressed they need to get vaccinated.
There were 1,218 positive cases reported today in Northern Ireland along with six further deaths.
Meanwhile, doctors are noticing a reduction in the number of people contacting them with Covid-related queries, according to the Covid Lead with the Irish College of General Practitioners.
However, Dr Nuala O'Connor told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that while there are indications the virus is "slowing", there is "still a lot of it" in the community.
Dr O'Connor said it is entirely appropriate to review the advice on Covid isolation as new evidence emerges.
"We don't anticipate a change in the immediate future," she added.
In the interim it is important that people focus on the most things they can do to help bring Covid numbers down, she said.
