Irish people will be able to travel abroad to Germany, Poland, Cyprus and other European countries under new changes to government advice from Monday.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed people are free to visit Green List countries after a change in Government advice.
Previously politicians had advised against all non-essential foreign travel, even to countries that were officially on the "Green List".
But now the Fine Gael leader said Irish people can visit a number of select countries for any reason, whether that be for holidays or to visit family.
He told RTE's Prime Time: "Any country that has an incidence of less than 25 per 100,000 over 14 days is on the Green List, and that is a real Green List.
"By green we're saying you can travel to those countries without any restrictions.
"Of course there is no such thing as no risk, but these are all countries with a lower incidence of the virus than Ireland."
Ireland will likely cut popular holiday destinations Greece and Italy from a quarantine-free "green list" and leave some of Europe's strictest travel restrictions in place for another month.
How are the green list countries picked?
Countries with 14-day COVID-19 infection rates under 25 per 100,000 will be placed on a Green List that will exempt arrivals from those countries from quarantining for 14 days on arrival in Ireland.
The green list was initially made up of countries with lower infection rates than Ireland, but the government stopped updating it in August when Ireland's infection rate rose sharply and the list of 10 countries has been frozen since.
What are the new Green list countries?
These countries will all be on the green list from Monday according the the Government;
- Cyrpus
- Finland
- Germany
- Iceland
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Poland
What is the official advice now?
The Department of Foreign Affairs states: "Irish citizens travelling to locations with a ‘normal precautions’ (“green”) rating are advised to follow the public health guidelines of the local health authorities and to continue to practice physical distancing measures, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette etc.
"Citizens who are considering travel to these locations are also advised to monitor news and information from the public authorities in their chosen destination.
"This includes information regarding possible restrictions on arrival from abroad, including from Ireland. The security rating for all other locations remains unchanged at either to ‘avoid non-essential travel’ (“orange”) or to ‘do not travel’ (“red”)."
