Irish people looking to holiday soon may have to think again as rules instructing those arriving in Ireland to quarantine for two weeks are set to be extended.
Laws that require visitors arriving in Dublin Airport and other ports to tell authorities where they will be self-isolating for 14 days after they arrive will continue for another three weeks until July 9.
This means that anyone hoping to travel abroad will still be asked to isolate for two weeks after they return home until early July and wouldn't be able to work during that time either, the Irish Independent reports.
In a bid to get its business on track again, Ryanair recently held a huge ticket sale for flights that are leaving Ireland from July 1.
The Government are set to make important decisions on non-essential travel in and out of the country at their Cabinet meeting next week.
The system of visitors and citizens returning home to Ireland having to self-isolate is predicted to be scrapped after the Irish government consulted with other EU countries who are having success without those restrictions.
But the requirement to fill out a passenger locator form once you arrive in Ireland is expected to stick around for the time being to discourage non-essential travel
Cabinet ministers are being encouraged to consider other safety measures they could use to monitor visitors coming into the country, including introducing self-isolating facilities in airports.
They have also been told to consider temperature checks or virus testing for people arriving into Ireland as well as keeping a reliable way of contact tracing passengers by passenger manifests or the continuing to use locator forms.
At the last cabinet meeting it was suggested that Ireland follows the example of other EU countries by allowing passengers to travel between Ireland and other EU states.
However, the decision in regards to this has been delayed for another two weeks
The impact of the Covid-19 travel restrictions on the industry were explained in a recent memo for ministers.
It says: "If residual restrictions were still being applied to some member states, it would appear that this could only be justified on the ground that those countries had poorer epidemiological situations than Ireland."
The closure of the overseas tourism sector in Ireland for the rest of this year could result in as much as 200,000 job losses and an economic hit of €2.3bn.
Even the rise of tourism within Ireland itself, people holidaying within Ireland will not be enough to combat the losses from the shutdown of overseas tourism which accounts for 75 percent of Ireland's tourism revenue.
The memo said: "Only a portion of this activity could expect to be offset by any increase in domestic tourism,"
The memo reminded ministers that sea carriers who are already struggling are likely to stop operating and providing services in order to ensure they survive, as well as the possibility of airlines needing a bailout
The Department of Health have told Ministers that they remain very worried about Covid-19 getting worse as a result of travel.
