The highest level of attendances at emergency departments on record has been seen in the past week, with 28,000 patients attending, according to the Health Service Executive.
HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor said that many of those attending were older, sicker, more frail and stay in hospital longer.
Ms O'Connor said that the HSE hopes the peak is a temporary trend and a delayed winter surge.
The average daily trolley count for the past week is 333.
Ms O'Connor said that many older people may have stayed away from hospital during the Covid-19 peak when they should have attended.
While attendances at emergency departments are at record levels, the number being admitted has not risen notably.
Ms O'Connor said that an added impact on the hospital system is that over 600 patients who could be discharged are in hospital beds.
Due to the current pressures, some hospitals are having to postpone planned procedures.
Ms O'Connor said that while public hospitals are full, private hospitals are under pressure also, so it has a whole health system impact.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Ms O'Connor also said that about 50% of all nursing homes are experiencing a flu outbreak at the moment, meaning they cannot discharge the same numbers of people into nursing homes.
She added that they are very challenged in terms of getting home care - more because of carer supply than funding.
Meanwhile, HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said that the HSE is looking at revising the visiting guidelines for hospitals, given that the peak period of Covid-19 has passed.
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Call for Oireachtas to investigate hospital overcrowding
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called on the Oireachtas to investigate hospital overcrowding.
According to the latest INMO figures, over 4,224 patients have been on trolleys in the first ten days of February.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "After months of a hands-off approach from the HSE, HIQA and the Minister for Health when it comes to dealing with hospital overcrowding, it is time for serious political intervention from members of the Oireachtas.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha told RTÉ's Drivetime, that in one hospital this week every bay in the ED was occupied by two trolleys and the fire officer ended up having to be called.
She said they know from studies that anyone who spends more than five hours on a trolley is going to have a poorer outcome.
She said community services have not been brought to a point where they can assist people in staying out of hospital, and one of the main reasons people come to hospital is because they have no alternative.
"We’re dealing with two different types of treatment in our emergency departments, we’re trying to keep people separate - it simply isn’t working, so it’s putting enormous pressure on these units, but also on the hospital in general."
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said they have called for the HSE to maintain the use of private hospitals for acute, elective admissions.
Speaking on the same programme, Dr Ray Walley, Chair of the IMO GP Committee, said they are dealing with an infrastructure that has not been developed over the last decade, with beds and hospital structures needing to be modernised.
Dr Walley said the infrastructure cannot cope while the population has continued to climb.
"None of this wasn’t predictable," he said. "The Department of Health are the people who plan for all this, where are the planners in this?
"They have been criticised regularly and we have yet to see any change in our infrastructure or the number of consultants coming in - in fact, we continue to have an increase in emigration."
