THE IRISH Government has officially given the green light for anyone looking to fly home to Ireland this Christmas.
After weeks of speculation, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has finally confirmed that people will be allowed to fly to Ireland over the festive period - but encouraged people to take precautions.
Previously, Varadkar - along with Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan - had urged Irish folk living abroad not to book flights home due to Covid-19 fears, but the narrative has finally changed.
They're allowing people to fly home, but asking travellers to adhere to the "traffic light rules".
Spreaking on RTE's Morning Ireland on Wednesday, the Fine Gael leader said: "If people do travel, we do appreciate that is people's choice and there may be individual people who have individual family circumstances that require them to travel, we do appreciate that.
"It's what we have agreed as a Government and it is not as strong as the NPHET advice, which is stronger.
"We've agreed as a Government that if people do travel we are asking them to follow those traffic light rules.
"So if you're coming from an amber light area, there are very few of them, make sure you have a test before you travel, a negative test.
"If you're coming from a red area, which is pretty much everywhere at the moment, outside of Ireland and Iceland, we're saying to people that if you're coming, restrict your movements for the first five days until you get a test that's negative on day five."
