According to newly released figures from the Department of Transport, almost 200,000 passengers have entered Ireland since the start of the year.
The figures have revealed that over 188,000 entered through Dublin airport, while 1,000 came in through Shannon airport and another 4,000 through Cork – a total of 193,000.
On Friday the government added a total of 16 countries to the mandatory hotel quarantine list, including the US, Belgium, France, Italy, and Canada, among others.
According to the new figures, nearly 3,300 people entered the country from these regions in the week preceding April 4th.
This revelation comes as new documents have been released under a Freedom of Information request by Aontú, revealing that the government had major concerns about the travel ban for the UK just before Christmas on December 20th.
The documents, which were secured by Meath West TD and Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, showed that several officials in the Department of Transport were strongly opposed to banning flights, citing concerns around supply chains.
In an email to Transport Minister Eamon Ryan entitled “Info for leaders meeting”, officials said that flight bans were “generally not recommended by the European Commission.”
“There is international travel that is essential and it is important to maintain the flight network to support it and the associated air cargo capability to maintain supply chains. The recommended alternative is to apply measures to persons travelling to mitigate against virus transmission.
“Outright flight bans will create major difficulties”, they stated, adding that there were significant concerns at the time in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Deputy Toibín said the documents “pose a political question regarding the functioning of the coalition.”
“The documents reveal that Eamon Ryan went into that meeting with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste armed with arguments by his department against banning flights, yet immediately afterwards he banned the flights.”