The idea of people in Ireland travelling abroad this year is "not looking good", says Health Minister Simon Harris.
The Wicklow TD said that current advice is for people not to leave the island of Ireland, and added that it was highly unlikely that people would be able to venture abroad for holidays later in the year, reports RSVP Live.
The Health Minister added that anyone who travels into Ireland must self-isolate for 14 days and referred to the fact that other European countries have their own rules and restrictions in place when it comes to people arriving there.
Passengers who arrive here will now be asked to complete a Public Health Passenger Locator form, providing their contact details and the address at which they will self-isolate.
Mr. Harris added that very few people are travelling into the country at the moment but that could change in the coming months.
He said: "said: “At the moment it is not looking good for foreign travel.
“The advice still remains that should not leave the island of Ireland.
“Being truthful to people it is looking highly unlikely this year”.
Harris also spoke on the possibility of making self isolation mandatory when returning here.
He added: “We now have a measure in our airports, that when you come in now you fill in a passenger form where you are committing to self isolate for 14 days.
"That’s whether you’re Irish, or not, regardless.
“The Taoiseach has asked a number of ministries to consider with the Attorney General whether we need to underpin that form by regulation and we will make a decision on that in the coming weeks.”
It comes as the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care across the country has dropped below 100 for the first time in over a mont
There are currently 99 patients who have the virus in ICUs, while there's a further 184 people getting treatment for non-Covid-19 issues.
This means that there are 1,400 general beds and 134 critical care beds available.
But the news comes as a further 34 people tragically lost their lives on Friday.
This brings the death toll in the Republic of Ireland to 1,265.
There have now been 20,833 people infected with coronavirus, with around 13,000 completely recovered.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Simon Harris branded Covid-19 “disgusting.”
He said it piled “grief on top of grief” by depriving the 1,265 heartbroken families of a proper funeral.
Churches will be allowed re-open with social distancing on July 20 under the new plan.
“Over 1,200 people have already died and if you go on to RIP.ie and see ‘A funeral will be held in private’, people are being deprived of the normal way of grieving,” he said.
“When we get through this pandemic we will have to come up with a way to properly grieve the people who’s lives have been lost. They are not just statistics.”
