THE GOVERNMENT has released the Green List of countries deemed as safe or safer than Ireland from coronavirus.
Travellers will not be required to quarantine for 14 days upon their return from the countries which have made the list, however the list will be updated each fortnight and countries could be removed if there has been a spike in cases.
Coronavirus hotspots such as the United States and the United Kingdom did not make the list.
The countries seemed safer to travel to are:
Malta
Finland
Norway
Italy
Hungary
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Cyprus
Slovakia
Greece
Greenland
Gibraltar
Monaco
San Marino
However, Irish people are still urged not to travel to these countries and to remain in Ireland.
The Green List has been released, but Irish people are urged not to travel. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ieIn a statement yesterday, the Irish Government said that despite the Green List being issued, the pandemic is not over and the safest thing is not to travel at all, saying "public health advice remains the same".
Sinn Féin transport spokesman Darren O'Rourke, who has been long outspoken about the concerning lack of mandatory quarantine measures in Irish airports, said the release of the list was confusing and contradictory.
“We now have a ‘green list’ that identifies countries that people can travel to and from without the need to quarantine, but advice against all non-essential foreign travel appears to remain in place," Mr O'Rourke said.
"This makes very little sense and sends a very mixed message at a critical time in our Covid-19 response,” he said.
Róisín Shorthall, co-leader of the Social Democrats who has also previously shared her concerns about the contradictory messages from the Government regarding travel, said the list was "meaningless" as public health advice remains that nobody should be travelling outside of Ireland.
Former Taoiseach and current Tánaiste Leo Varadkar yesterday agreed that it was "wrong" to send "mixed messages" regarding travel and "we would be better off not having a green list".
Yesterday, the Republic of Ireland recorded no new deaths from the virus but a further 36 new cases.
There have been 25,802 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Republic, and 1,753 people have died.
