On Friday evening, the Minister for Health in Ireland, Stephen Donnelly, signed the first of the new regulations to implement measures relating to travel. From now, people caught at ports or airports wanting to leave the country for non-essential travel reasons, will be issued a fine of €500 euros per person.
According to The Irish Times, a spokesperson for the Health Minister confirmed the move on the fine targeting holiday-makers, and said: "Work on other regulations around mandatory quarantine is continuing and should be completed in the next few days."
Mandatory quarantining at a designated facility for passengers who cannot provide a pre-departure negative Covid-19 test is now required. All those travelling from Brazil and South Africa, due to new strains of the virus there, must also quarantine at a designated facility. Other passengers are to be required by law to quarantine at home.
The publication also reports that the Government has said that applying mandatory quarantine measures to EU or UK citizens requires changes to primary legislation.
The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, said that the Government is looking for ways to fine people travelling more than 5km across the border from Northern Ireland without a valid reason, but said it was "not straightforward".
The penalty has also been increased for breaches of the 5km travel limit on non-essential domestic travel, from a 100€ fine to 500€.
