Government to charter jet to bring Irish people home from Middle East — McEntee

A police vehicle and an ambulance are parked on the departure road of the Dubai International Airport as it lies deserted following its closure in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Up to 280 Irish citizens could be removed from the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates in the coming days on flights chartered by the Government.

Foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee said this would be the “first flight of many” and that people most in need of evacuation will be prioritised.

People will be transferred to Oman via bus and then put on a flight.

Up to 24,000 Irish citizens are currently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate following the US-Israeli bombing of Iran.

Around 2,000 people are either transiting through the region or are on holidays and are seeking to return to Ireland.

Ms McEntee confirmed the Government has agreed to charter a flight and will contact people on Wednesday to offer them a place on the plane.

However, she could not say when the flight would leave but suggested it will be in the coming days.

“The first and the quickest and the best option is still for commercial airlines to bring people home, particularly given so much of our population is in the UAE, is in Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” Ms McEntee told RTÉ radio.

“We've seen over the last few days a number of flights that have been taken off, not all of them to the west. Many of them are heading east.

“But on those flights, we have Irish people, and we're engaging directly with those airlines to see can we, in the coming days, ensure that some of those direct flights are coming to Dublin.

“Secondly, what we're looking at and what we've agreed now is that we will have an Irish Government chartered flight. It's important that we can obviously say that this is the first of many, I hope.

“By (Wednesday) we'll be reaching out to citizens to try and make sure that that first chartered flight is full.

“I have to say all of this with a caveat that everything that we're doing now, it's on the basis that airspace is open, that it's safe to do so, and that we're asking people to travel, because this will not be the UAE airport. It will be Oman that we're talking about, that people are in a position to travel.

“We're looking at one of the largest planes that we can and that's probably up to about 280 people.” 

Ms McEntee acknowledged that this would help just a “fraction” of the Irish people who want to come home.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is looking at removing the most vulnerable people first, including the elderly, pregnant people, and those with health conditions.