Ireland’s travel Green List to be reduced to four countries after four countries removed

Three of the four countries have quarantine or other requirements in place for visitors from other jurisdictions.

Ireland’s travel ‘Green List’ will be reduced to four countries from next Monday (28 September) after the government confirmed that four countries would be removed from the existing list. Criteria for a countries’ inclusion on the Green List is based on ECDC (European Centre for Disease Control) data and includes countries with a 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases of less than 25 per 100,000 population. Based on ECDC data from Thursday (24 September), Germany, Iceland, Lithuania and Poland will be removed from the Green List from midnight on Sunday (27 September). Liechtenstein is the only country that has been added to the list and is also the only one of the four countries on the updated list that does not have quarantine or other restrictive measures in place for visitors from other jurisdictions, including Ireland. The updated Green List now includes:

• Cyprus
• Finland
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein

The Green List is likely to be shelved next month in favour of an EU-wide 'traffic light' plan, to which Taoiseach Micheál Martin has already indicated a willingness to adopt in Ireland. The plan is expected to be finalised at the EU's General Affairs Council in mid-October. Under the plan, countries and regions would be given either a red, orange or green colour, representative of the incidence of Covid-19 in the area. The ECDC will publish the maps outlining the colours of the regions, which will be updated each week.