Ireland upgraded to orange status under EU traffic light system

DAA Chief Communications Officer, Paul O'Kane says it is vital anyone travelling abroad checks the rules in place at their destination.

People travelling from Ireland to other countries in the EU will face fewer restrictions following an update to the traffic light system.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has upgraded Ireland from a red-listed country to an orange one along with the Canary Islands.

The decision has been made following improvements to our 14-day incidence rate and test positivity rate.

Parts of Greece, Norway and Finland are also listed as orange while most of Europe remains red.

DAA Chief Communications Officer, Paul O'Kane says it is vital anyone travelling abroad checks the rules in place at their destination.

"Each individual European member state applies its own rules to how it deals with people incoming from a red or an orange region.

"If people here are travelling to other European countries, the Republic of Ireland's designation changed today.

"Last week, all three of the regions in the Republic of Ireland were red. They have now all changed to orange.

"So anyone who is based in Ireland and wants to travel overseas, they need to check what the rules are in the country of arrival."

Meanwhile, a leading health expert says people should not travel home from abroad this Christmas.

Public Health Physician, Dr Gabriel Scally says people should celebrate differently this year to stop the spread of Covid-19.

He says they should do it in the knowledge the situation should improve with a vaccine available in the New Year.

"The great thing is there is light at the end of the tunnel with a vaccine coming and coming at us fast," said Dr Scally.

"So if we could just fix our minds on getting through to the spring and the arrival of the vaccine in a large number of doses and just play it down for Christmas just this once."