The Cabinet is expected to make a decision on the injection of private equity into Aer Lingus at its final meeting of the year today.
A busy agenda is expected to include discussion of the Aer Lingus issue, as well as the question of a TV licence fee increase for RTÉ.
It is expected the Cabinet will rule out putting any State money into the airline and that it will back a part-privatisation, subject to consultation with the trade unions.
Aer Lingus is also still in the midst of implementing a redundancy programme that will cut its workforce by 1,325, or around a third of its staff.
The airline, which will lose its chief executive, chairman and two more senior executives over the coming months, also faces a cash crisis and needs to spend around €1 billion on new aircraft from 2008.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, will brief his Government colleagues today following a meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee on Aer Lingus last week.
Government ministers are also expected to discuss how the State can deal with the backlog of 17,000 residency claims by the parents of Irish-born children.
A Government spokesman could not confirm the agenda for the meeting which is due to finish at around lunchtime.