Despite warnings that events would be booked out weeks in advance, numerous hotels, restaurants and night-clubs are still seeking customers for millennium gala balls, dinners and discos.
Some small events have been cancelled due to lack of demand. Others have been reorganised or re-priced to attract more people.
But, despite the slow sales, most organisers are confident of a last-minute surge in demand as party-goers realise their options are running out.
"Now is the time people are deciding what to do," said Mr Dermot Waldron, manager of the Neptune Beach Hotel and Leisure Club in Bettystown, Co Meath. Of 150 places at the hotel's black-tie ball, 120 have been booked so far. "We're expecting even more interest in the next few days, but even if we only have 120 we'll still have a great night," Mr Waldron said.
At £155 per person, tickets cover a pre-dinner champagne reception, seven-course banquet with wine and port, champagne toast and music until 3 a.m.
The Radisson SAS St Helen's Hotel in Dublin has introduced a new ticket for its millennium ball after an insufficient take-up on its overnight offer. Rather than paying £295, guests can now pay £150 to enjoy the celebrations without overnight accommodation.
The ticket covers welcome drinks and canapes, a gala buffet dinner, wine, champagne and dancing.
About one-quarter of the 1,000 tickets for Club Anabel's "Y2K" party at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, remain on sale. However, the hotel manager, Mr Declan Madden, said: "We expect them to go fairly fast and that they'll be sold out well before the day".
Renvyle House Hotel, Co Galway, is catering for 150 guests, half the number it catered for last year. Tickets remain available for a variety of two-, three-, four- and five-day programmes, ranging in price from £260 to £500, inclusive of accommodation.
At the high-spending end of the market, results have been mixed. Lismore Castle has managed to find a customer willing to pay £35,000 to rent out a wing of the historic building for five nights. The price includes catering and accommodation for 15 guests.
In contrast, the nine-bedroom Lisdonagh House in Co Galway, another client of the tourism agency Elegant Ireland, has had no takers for its offer of five days' self-catering for £5,000-£6,000.
In some cases, venues have experienced a last-minute surge in demand due to others cancelling events.
Mr Mark Browne, manager of the Ferrycarrig Hotel, Wexford, said: "A number of events in Wexford have fallen through at the last minute and a lot of people who had planned to go to them are now making inquiries here." All tickets for the hotel's black-tie dinner, however, have been sold.
Only a small number of tickets were said to be available for Millennium Mania at the RDS in Dublin which, with an expected crowd of 12,000, will be the largest indoor New Year's Eve event in the State. All VIP tickets at £99 each have been sold, with limited availability for other tickets, ranging in price from £55 to £75.
Event organisers are hoping that the closure of public houses will boost demand. Most of those pubs which are remaining open in the capital are charging an entrance fee to cover the additional wage demands of their staff.
Outside Dublin, the "vast majority" of pubs are expected to remain open, according to a spokeswoman for the Vintners' Federation of Ireland. This was because over 90 per cent were small family-run businesses, she said. Larger pubs in Galway and Cork were expected to close.
Demand for millennium holidays has also been less than expected. A number of tour operators, such as Falcon/JWT, have held sales to clear the remainder of package holidays on their books.
The company's marketing director, Mr Damien Mooney, said: "Demand started off quite strongly but then people who would normally travel over the millennium held off for a bit while they decided if they were going to stay at home or do something different this year."
Since holding a sale earlier this month, the company has sold off all its holidays, with only last-minute cancellations now available.
A list of millennium events throughout Ireland can be found at the National Millennium Committee's website: www.2000ireland.com