One in five buses and trains will be parked-up in garages and stations from next week.
The Coronavirus emergency means that public transport is going to have to cut back its services by 20%.
This is because of falling demand due to the Government’s semi-lockdown measures and the public health safety requirements of social distancing that have to be implemented.
The announcement came at Government Buildings this morning (FRI) where officials now come out every morning to update journalists on the latest developments from ministers.
Senior official Liz Canavan of the Department of Taoiseach said that starting next Monday for trains, and wednesday for buses, services will be running at 80% capacity.
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She said that the reduced schedule will see the volume of vehicles adjusted to ensure people are sitting safe distances away from each other on the buses and trains.
Many private operators have already suspended their services.
For instance, both of the popular private bus operators that run on the Galway-Dublin route, GoBus and Citylink, have suspended all of their services indefinitely.
Both of these routes had been sending one bus an hour each in both directions and were usually busy.
But basic services are still there nationwide as Iarnroid Eireann, Bus Eireann and other public transport companies pick up the slack in case people have to travel.
The strict guidelines from the Government are that people only leave their homes and travel in cases of emergency, or if they are working providing essential public services.
Ms Canavan also announced that all prison visits have now been suspended in a further effort to curb the spread of Coronavirus.
There are 7,000 people living and working in Irish prisons and this measure is being introduced to protect their health.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is working hard to repatriate Irish people stranded abroad during the crisis.
As well as the well-known case of a plane coming back from Peru, it was revealed yesterday that the department is working with up to 2,000 citizens in 86 countries to try and get them back home.
