The Government has agreed a 'green list' of 15 countries deemed safe to travel to.
It follows a late-night Cabinet meeting tonight.
The list - which will be reviewed regularly - means people who travel to Ireland from the countries in question will not be required to self-quarantine for 14 days after they arrive here.
Only European countries have been included on the list, and they are all countries with similar or lower rates of coronavirus infection than Ireland.
The full list of countries is:
- Malta
- Finland
- Norway
- Italy
- Hungary
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Cyprus
- Slovakia
- Greece
- Greenland
- Gibraltar
- Monaco
- San Marino
However, people are still being urged to only travel for essential reasons.
Minister of State Josepha Madigan confirmed the list in a tweet this evening:
The countries where the Department of Foreign Affairs’ travel advice has changed to “normal precautions” are⤵️#GreenList: Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia/Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco, San Marino#COVID19 #COVIDupdate pic.twitter.com/moVOt30rb8
— Josepha Madigan ⚖️✨ (@josephamadigan) July 21, 2020
As expected, Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands are among the notable exceptions on the list.
Ministers had been split on whether to lift quarantine requirements at all for a limited number of countries.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar earlier suggested there shouldn't be a list if the advice to not travel for non-essential reasons wasn't changing.
He said it was wrong to send out "mixed messages" about international travel.
Main image: File photo of Dublin Airport. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
