Travel to and from Ireland in ‘extraordinary collapse’, CSO says

There was an "extraordinary collapse" in overseas travel to and from Ireland last month due the Covid-19 pandemic, with year-on-year drops in excess of 95 per cent on both counts, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The issue of travel to and from Ireland has been a contentious one for the Government, which, despite advising against all non-essential travel, published a “green list” of countries and territories from which people are not required to self-isolate for 14 days upon return.

The CSO figures show there were 57,100 arrivals and 73,900 departures in June compared with monthly travel of about two million in each direction in the same month last year. These figures represent annual falls of 97.1 per cent and 96.4 per cent respectively.

Of the 57,100 people arriving in Ireland, 40,200 (70.4 per cent) arrived by air and 16,900 (29.6 per cent) arrived by sea. Of the 73,900 people departing Ireland, 53,100 (71.8 per cent) departed by air and 20,800 (28.2 per cent) departed by sea.

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Of those arriving, 32,300 (56.5 per cent) came by cross-channel routes, 18,300 (32.1 per cent) by continental routes, 3,800 (6.6 per cent) by transatlantic routes and 2,700 (4.8 per cent) by other overseas routes.

The corresponding figures for those departing Ireland were 36,800 (49.8 per cent), 33,300 (45 per cent), 2,500 (3.3 per cent) and 1,300 (1.8 per cent) respectively.

Staging countries

The CSO said the “most important staging countries” for people travelling overseas to Ireland were Britain (32,300), the Netherlands (4,400) and Germany (3,900).

The most important staging countries for people travelling overseas from Ireland were Britain (36,800), Germany (6,600) and the Netherlands (6,200).

Over the first half of the year, 3,186,700 people arrived in Ireland from overseas and 3,173,300 people departed. These represent decreases of 65.9 per cent and 66.6 per cent respectively compared with the same period in 2019.

State airports company DAA told TDs and senators on Tuesday that passengers from non-green list countries should prove they have tested negative for coronavirus before travelling here.

The Government’s green list includes 15 countries and territories. They are Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Finland, Norway, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino.

DAA urged the introduction of the testing requirement at the Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response as Ryanair warns there is no legal basis for Government travel restrictions, including the green list and 14-day quarantine.

The Government’s list excludes key markets such as Britain and the United States, and popular holiday destinations for Irish people, such as France, Spain and Portugal.

The CSO suspended collection of tourism statistics at air and sea ports in March to protect its enumerators and the travelling public. To help fill the data gap, the CSO is publishing these new air and sea travel statistics which report on the numbers of overseas travellers arriving and departing Ireland classified by travel route.

The information is compiled primarily from statistics provided by the DAA, together with data from other air and sea ports.