'Come next year': Government doubles down on advice not to travel home unless essential

Shops closed at Cork Airport. Picture: Larry Cummins

Anyone still thinking of travelling to Ireland for Christmas should only do so if it is absolutely essential, a government spokeswoman said today. 

Ireland currently has the second-lowest 14-day rate of infection in Europe and the Government is strongly advising against holiday travel.

Elizabeth Canavan, from the Department of the Taoiseach doubled down on previous advice, saying: “We are not out of the woods yet. We are asking most people who can to skip this year and come next year instead.” 

And she called on the public to assess the need for any journeys while acknowledging this is a great sacrifice for families.

She said air travel is expected to be down by 90% and ferry travel by 60%. Most of Europe including the United Kingdom is currently marked Red under the EU Traffic Light travel system.

Ms Canavan said anyone arriving from a Red Zone area should restrict their guidance on arrival and apply for a PCR test after five days in the country. If that test is negative you do not have to continue restricting your movements in Ireland but should still follow public health guidelines around mask-wearing and so on.

And she strongly advised anyone arriving for just one week to follow all restrictions during that time, especially not meeting anyone from outside the household you are visiting.

She warned: “It won’t be a normal visit.”

People who do not have time to get the PCR test should avoid restaurants and indoor settings, but she said meeting outdoors continues to be recommended.

Other tests with a fast turnaround time are available, but Ms Canavan said that government advice is focused on the gold-standard PCR tests.

In recognition of the impact of these restrictions on younger people aged under 24, she said a new online campaign has been launched to support them. The campaign, running on social media platform TikTok, has been accessed by over 350,000 people using the hashtag #antiviral.

New guidelines around visiting nursing homes over the holiday period and beyond take effect from today. One visitor per week is now allowed. 

This includes indoor visiting and is a change from previous guidelines which focused on outdoor so-called window visits.