Icy conditions made for hazardous driving today, with a number of incidents reported in parts of the country.
AA Roadwatch said this afternoon the M9 Dublin to Waterford road was closed for a time between junction 3 Athy and junction 4 Castledermot after a serious incident. The road has no reopened and no further delays are reported.
The Gorey to Carnew road (R725) has reopened after an incident at Cranford.
Elsewhere, conditions improved after a very cold and frosty morning. AA Roadwatch urged motorists to exercise caution on secondary routes, particularly in Munster and Ulster.
Tipperary, parts of Mayo, Sligo, Galway and Roscommon were all reported to be extremely icy earlier. There was snow in parts of Leitrim, making for slippery conditions. AA Roadwatch and gardai urged caution on secondary roads around Co Louth.
Tullamore and Birr in Co Offaly were also icy, as were secondary roads around Cavan town.
Met Éireann said wintry showers in the north and west were expected to become more widespread for a time today, but it will be mainly dry with sunny spells in the south and east.
Highest temperatures today will be 4 to 8 degrees, with fresh or locally strong west to northwest winds, Met Éireann said.
Showers of rain or hail will affect many parts of the country for a few hours after dark but will retreat to northern and western coasts later.
Frost and ice will clear tomorrow morning and many parts of the country will have a dry day with sunny spells. Northern and western counties will see further showers of rain or hail.
Sunday will be cold, with a mixture of cloud and sunny intervals.
Temperatures will be milder from Monday, according to the national forecasting service.
Eircom said there high levels of faults in broadband and telephone services due to the weather.
The provider said there were currently less than 6,000 faults, nationwide with more than 4,000 new faults reported on Wednesday and Thursday alone.
As of yesterday, over 6,000 faults had been cleared since Monday.
The worst affected areas are Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Louth, Cavan, Monaghan and Waterford. There was an increase in faults in the west Cork and South Kerry areas following lightning storms on Wednesday, Eircom said.
It said all available staff had been diverted to repair teams and over 500 staff would be working over the weekend across the country to restore service to customers as quickly as possible.
The company said travel conditions were difficult in rural and upland areas, but repair crews were doing everything possible to get to them.
It reminded customers to log faults, where possible, using its website.
On the events front, festive markets continue around the country, in the final weekend before Christmas. The Galway continental Christmas market continues at Eyre Square in the city until Sunday.
In Dublin, White Christmas continues at the Grand Canal Theatre until tomorrow. Dublin-born singer Imelda May plays at the 02 tonight and tomorrow.
The Dún Laoghaire Christmas festival continues until Sunday, January 8th.
The Irish Chamber Orchestra performs Season Symphony and Song in the RDS Concert Hall tomorrow.