The Christmas rush begins in earnest today with hundreds of thousands of people expected to travel to and from the country over the coming days.
While Christmas Eve will be a busy day for travellers, today and tomorrow are traditionally the busiest days at airports as people try to reach their destinations before December 24th.
This will be the busiest Christmas season to date at Dublin Airport with almost 800,000 passengers on the move between today and January 5th, a 7 per cent increase on last year.
Tomorrow will be the busiest day before Christmas at the airport with more than 67,000 people expected to travel while December 30th is the busiest day after Christmas, with almost 65,000 people travelling.
More than 262 charter flights have been added to the schedule over the Christmas period as many people head off to sun and ski destinations such as Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Salzburg and Innsbruck.
The last arriving flight to Dublin Airport on Christmas Eve is due at 11.50 p.m. from Tenerife. The airport will close on Christmas Day, with normal operations resuming early on St Stephen's Day for the first departing flights at 6 a.m.
Dublin Airport has advised passengers travelling out of Ireland not to wrap Christmas presents as they may by required by airport security officials to open them.
Some 85,000 people are expected to pass through Shannon Airport between now and January 5th - a 10 per cent increase on last year.
Meanwhile, Irish Ferries will carry approximately 46,000 passengers and 13,000 vehicles on its Dublin and Rosslare to Britain routes over the Christmas period.
Iarnród Éireann expects to carry up to 400,000 people on Intercity rail services between tomorrow and January 3rd.
There will be no train services on Iarnród Éireann or Northern Ireland railways on Christmas Day or St Stephen's Day.
All DART and commuter services will operate normally up to about 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Between December 28th and January 3rd, DART upgrade works will mean that no DART services will operate between Pearse and Howth/Malahide. However, extra buses will run.
Limited timetables will operate on the Drogheda and Maynooth commuter lines.
Full details of all holiday services are available at all Iarnród Éireann offices, from the information line: 1850 366 222 or online at www.irishrail.ie
Between Christmas Eve and January 3rd, Bus Éireann expects to carry 200,000 passengers. Most normal weekday services will operate on Christmas Eve but all Eurolines cross-channel services will be cancelled.
Certain Expressway services will also be cancelled while services on city, suburban and commuter routes will finish earlier than normal.
Bus Éireann will not run services on Christmas Day but a limited service will be available on St Stephen's Day on the main Expressway routes and some suburban and city routes.
Details of the service are available in a special timetable leaflet at Bus Éireann offices or from www.buseireann.ie
Normal services will operate on Dublin Bus on all routes on Christmas Eve, but last buses will leave the city at 9 p.m.
Xpresso and Nitelink services will not run on Christmas Eve.
There will be no buses on Christmas Day and a normal Sunday service will operate on all routes on St Stephen's Day.
The Nitelink service will also be back running on that night.
