Overseas travel out of Ireland increased by just under 20% in the same period.
Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal that overseas travel into Ireland increased by just under 60% in August compared to the previous month.
362,600 passengers arrived in Ireland on overseas routes last month, while 328,200 passengers departed Ireland on overseas routes during the same period.
85.9% of people arriving in Ireland during the month of August arrived by air and 14.1% by sea, with Great Britain accounting for the largest number of passenger arrivals (112,600), followed by Spain (33,600) and Poland (31,700).
83.9% of people departing Ireland in August did so by air and 16.1% by sea, with Great Britain accounting for the highest number of passenger departures (125,400), followed by Poland (23,900) and Italy (23,300).
While the overseas and departure figures increased significantly on the corresponding figures for the month of July, arrivals and departures were down on the figures for August 2019 by 83.9% and 85% respectively.
In the period from January to August of this year, overseas arrivals and departures are down by 72.7% and 72.8% respectively on the figures for the same period last year.
Up until 29 June, people in Ireland were restricted from travelling outside of their own county in the original government roadmap to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Restrictions on overseas travel began to be lifted in July, but were subject, in the majority of cases, to passengers having to quarantine for two weeks upon their arrival in Ireland from overseas.
The government’s ‘Green List’ – countries to which people were permitted to travel to without the need to self-isolate upon their return – was first published on 21 July.
As of Monday 28 September, the ‘Green List’ now consists of just four countries – Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Liechtenstein.
Liechtenstein is the only one of the four countries on the list that does not have quarantine or other restrictive measures in place for visitors from other jurisdictions, including Ireland.
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.
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