From Friday, all passengers arriving into Ireland will need proof of a negative antigen or PCR test to gain entry into the country - but there is one area that is exempt.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly confirmed to the Irish Mirror yesterday that the new rule would include passengers arriving into Ireland by air or sea from Great Britain.
However, it will not apply to people travelling between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, meaning people crossing the border will not be required to show a negative test result.
More than 60 flights from Britain are expected to land in Belfast and Derry on Friday.
For passengers arriving into Northern Ireland, local travel rules apply as well as the UK's own recently-updated travel measures.
But for those travelling within the Common Travel Area (Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Britain, and the Channel Islands), the new testing and isolation rules for travel to the UK will not apply and passengers do not need to fill in a Passenger Locator Form.
This means passengers can freely enter the UK from Ireland without any testing requirements - but will require a test on return, with the exception of coming from Northern Ireland.
The new travel restrictions for the Republic of Ireland were agreed by Ministers on Tuesday and will come into effect at 00.01am on Friday, December 3.
What are the new travel rules?
- Unvaccinated people will have to have a negative PCR test but fully vaccinated people can avail of a PCR or antigen test
- Those travelling with an antigen test result will need to have obtained it within 48 hours of departure
- Those with a PCR test result will have a longer pre-travel window of 72 hours
- The tests will have to be privately paid for and cannot be home antigen tests
- Children aged under 11 will be exempt from requiring a negative test for travel
Passengers arriving without the correct tests could face possible fines and it is understood that spot checks will be carried out by border control.
The rule will be reviewed in two weeks' time after more is known about the emerging Omicron variant.
Minister Donnelly also confirmed to the Irish Mirror that he expects more countries to be added to the home quarantine list later this week.
There were 5,471 new cases of Covid-19 reported by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on Tuesday.
Of those, 579 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, with 122 in ICU.
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