ON AVERAGE, over 3,500 passengers arrived in Ireland via Dublin Airport every single day during January, statistics show.
Figures released by the Department of Transport also reveal that more than 110,000 people in total have arrived via the airport since the New Year.
That's over 50 times more than the number of people who have arrived via Cork Airport, which only saw 2,077 arrive in the same amount of time.
Just 775 people arrived in Ireland via Shannon Airport.
It's understood that 58% of all the passengers flying into Dublin arrived between January 1 and January 10.
This is notably six days before the Government's mandatory PCR test rule was introduced, on January 16.
Figures show that 16,722 passengers into Dublin came from Spain, indicating that many Dubliners took Christmas and New Year holidays to the Mediterranean despite public health guidance on non-essential international travel at the time.
Meanwhile, 12,869 people arrived into Dublin from Poland during January, 9,574 people arrived from the Netherlands, 9,298 people arrived from the UK, and 8,871 people arrived from France.
Closing and restricting movement on Ireland's borders has been one of the Government's key concerns in recent weeks, particularly in light of a spike on Covid-19 cases following the Christmas period.
Mandatory quarantine regulations are set to be introduced later this month, with extremely limited exemptions, for anyone arriving in Ireland, no matter where they've come from.
All passengers will be required to quarantine themselves for 14 days, even if they've provided a negative PCR test result prior to travel.
Arrivals must quarantine at the address they specify on their Passenger Locator Form, which they must fill out upon entry to the country, and failure to do so can result in a fine of up to €2,500.
If a second negative PCR test is provided after five days, the quarantine can be lifted early.
