On 9 April, the Minister for Health announced his intention to designate an additional 16 countries/territories as ‘Category 2’.

These are: Armenia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Curaçao, France, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Maldives, Pakistan, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States of America.

All those intending to travel to Ireland from or via any of these countries/territories, who will arrive in Ireland after 04.00 on Thursday 15 April are required to book accommodation for mandatory hotel quarantine in advance of travel. The booking portal will be updated to reflect these changes in due course.

The complete list of 71 countries and territories will be:

Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Curaçao, Ecuador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, France, French Guiana, Guyana, Italy, Jordan, Kenya , Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malawi, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Maldives, Oman, Palestine, Pakistan, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rwanda, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine ,United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the Territory of the Wallis and Futuna Islands.

A decision was also taken to remove Israel, Albania, and St Lucia from the list of countries for mandatory hotel quarantine. However the government agreed that anyone currently in mandatory quarantine who has travelled from or through these states must complete their period of quarantine.

However, travellers from the countries removed from the ‘Category 2’ List are still obliged to quarantine at home for 14 days, unless they obtained a “not detected” PCR test on day five after arrival

States being added to the designated list will be included as a priority on the booking system for mandatory hotel quarantine early next week, with passengers from these States entering quarantine starting from 4am on Thursday next 15 April.

However we recommend that anyone considering travel to Ireland should consult the following Government website beforehand