Majority of passengers coming through Dublin airport in January were non-essential travel

This is according to statistics from the Department of Transport.

While it has been recommended since last year that no one should travel outside of their country unless it is essential, that hasn't stopped holiday makers. The latest figures from the Department of Transport has found that in the month of January alone the majority of  those passing through Dublin airport were travelling for non-essential reasons. According to statistics from the Department of Transport, out of the 110,930 passengers that came through Dublin Airport in January only 40 per cent were classed as essential travel. 60 per cent of those who arrived into the country however were classed as non-essential travel. The statistics also found that Dublin Airport accounted for the majority of air travel into the country, with Cork and Shannon seeing only small pockets of traffic through their airports. The countries with the most recorded flights coming into Ireland included Poland, France, the UK, and the Netherlands. Speaking on the matter Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall feels that the whole issue of travel has been handled very badly by the government;

"In terms of the Government's response, at no point have we had a proper system in place to monitor or control the importation of the virus, and various things have been used and not enforced. Whether that's self-isolation, or restricting your movements, there's been no oversight of that, and we know from the figures we've got every single month last year, the situation is that a very small percentage of people coming here actually get any contact, a phone call, and only about half of those people are answering the calls. Less than ten per cent have been monitored, and that's just simply not good enough. "

As of last week the government have implemented new rules including fines for non-essential travel and hotel quarantining, but many feel this is still too little, too late.