Coveney says inter-county travel ban could be reintroduced by Jan.6

Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said the government could decide to re-introduce the inter-county travel ban before January 6.

The inter-county travel restriction was only lifted on weekends, along with the home visit ban, to allow families to meet up during the Christmas period.

It was noted over the weekend that inter-county travel would remain in effect until January 6, however, the Cabinet is scheduled to change that decision tomorrow.

The current level of restrictions was supposed to remain in effect until January 6, but health officials and the government are concerned about the rapid rise in infection levels in the country.

Yesterday, the medical director, Dr. Tony Holohan, said that all indicators of the severity of the disease are moving in the wrong direction, “faster than we had anticipated.”

Speaking to Claire Byrne Live of RTÉ, Simon Coveney said the government does not want to rush decisions “simply to get out early.” He said the government is working “day and night” to ensure that they make “the right decisions” to protect people.

Coveney said changes to inter-county travel may change before January 6.

“That will be a Cabinet decision tomorrow, so we will do what we always try to do in government, we will make decisions with all the facts in front of us, from NPHET, from HSE, from the Department of Health and other departments as well, be it the Department of Transportation, Department of Labor or whatever.

“I suspect there will be a long cabinet meeting tomorrow and then decisions based on the data and information that we have, to try to protect people and keep them safe over Christmas.

And that may mean introducing more restrictions before January 6; in fact, I hope so, but we will have to decide when and what new restrictions will be introduced given the growth in numbers that we are seeing today. -in the day right now.

Government sources said the date will be brought forward “much earlier,” but explained what it could mean for those traveling to another county for Christmas.

Even if new inter-county travel restrictions are introduced, people can still travel for work / school, so if you’ve gone home to Sligo or any other part of the country, you can still stay there until you return to your home county in the New Year or when you decide to return home.

The restriction is only to prevent people from unnecessarily circulating through the country.

On the UK travel suspension, Coveney said the Department for Transport is speaking with airlines to ensure there are a limited number of flights available to bring home Irish residents who were temporarily in the UK or who were in transition through UK airports.

He said these people will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days and fill out a passenger locator form when they return to Ireland.

He said he believes the number returning from the UK will be very small with only a handful of flights per day, compared to the 35 flights per day that had been anticipated.

With information from Christina Finn