It's hoped 15,000 Covid-19 tests will be carried out every day by the end of April, despite delays in testing and a backlog of cases.
Currently 2,000 suspected cases are being tested daily in the Republic, with people waiting an average of 7 to 10 days for their results.
Dr Cillian De Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, says testing has intensified in the past week.
"About 40% of all the testing we've done to dart has been done in the last week, that's across the country.
"Positivity rate over the past week has been 19%, which demonstrates that we continue to prioritise samples from hospitalised patients and healthcare workers, who are probably in the region of 2,000 samples per day.
"That will continue to increase over the coming weeks to our goal of 15,000 samples per day."
