Over 34,400 passengers arrived in Ireland since quarantine plan was announced

Over 1,200 passengers arrived from 'high risk' countries, such as South Africa and Brazil

More than 34,400 people arrived in Ireland in the three week period after the Government signed-off on its hotel quarantine plan.

Over 1,200 passengers arrived from 'high risk' countries, such as South Africa and Brazil.

Between February 22 and March 14, some 34,417 people arrived in the country, including 20,759 Irish residents.

Almost 14,000 were non-residents.

The most popular reason residents and non-residents gave for flying into Ireland was a holiday or visit.

The new quarantine system, announced in January, will see arrivals from 33 countries forced to stay at a hotel at their own expense for 14 days. It will cost up to €2,000 per adult for the two-week stay.

Any arrival who fails to adhere to the rules when arriving from certain countries will be fined €4,000 and face a possible month in prison.

Despite the legislation being signed into law on March 7, the system still hasn't been implemented.

Speaking in Cork on Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he expects to see mandatory hotel quarantine introduced “very soon” but gave no specific details on when that might be.

At Thursday's Nphet briefing, Dr Cillian De Gascún of the National Virus Reference Laboratory confirmed 24 cases of B1351 (South African) and seven of the P1 (Brazilian) variants of the disease, the "majority" of which are associated with travel.

Speaking on Newstalk this morning, Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said it was "ridiculous" that the quarantine system still isn't in place.

"We all know this is necessary. For the government not to have organised this and made sure they were able to deliver this is just not good enough."