"I just don't think that's realistic."
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan has said that summer holidays abroad are "not realistic" as things currently stand.
Speaking at Monday night's press briefing, Holohan said: "I don't think we're headed for a summer where millions of people from this part of the world can expect to be heading to beaches, other than in their own localities.
"Unfortunately, we're in a situation where we have to focus on getting the vulnerable people vaccinated, we have to continue to drive down community transmission across the whole population, we have to put in place the travel measures that Government agreed last week.
"As that applies to travel, it's a recommendation against all forms of non-essential travel, and I don't think it's realistic for us to foresee a situation where in the summertime, that we'll see a summer that's characterised by the kinds of things we'd all like to be in the position to do - which would be to fly off to other parts of Europe and the world for our summer holidays."
"I just don't think that's realistic."
Holohan's comments came on the same day that
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary defended his company's 'Jan and Go' adverts, which encouraged the public to book Easter and summer holidays.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Monday morning, O'Leary said that the tone of the ad is "completely fine", and that it acts as "the perfect antidote" to RTÉ and NPHET's "daily doses of pessimism".
New measures were recently introduced in Ireland will see those who are caught attempting to travel to a port or an airport to leave Ireland without a reasonable excuse face fines of €500.
