The government has agreed on a ‘green list’ of 15 country’s it’s safe for people to travel to without having to quarantine upon return.
It was agreed at a meeting of Cabinet late last night after a day of obvious division in government over the plans.
However the official advice remains for people to only undertake essential travel.
Italy, Cyprus and Greece are all listed, as well as Finland, Norway, and the Danish territory of Greenland, but not Denmark itself.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are included, as are Hungary, Slovakia, Monaco and San Marino.
Arrivals from those states won’t have to restrict their movements for fourteen days, but the controls will continue for everywhere else beyond the island of Ireland.
The list will be reviewed every fortnight based on public health advice
The government says it will press ahead with plans to beef up the monitoring of new arrivals, including a proposal to test passengers who have symptoms at ports and airports.
Passengers on a flight from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius which landed at Dublin Airport at sixteen minutes past midnight were the first arrivals to benefit.
