Data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reveals that no country will be on Ireland’s green list from next Monday.
The government had agreed to update the green list weekly from mid-September. However, the list is likely to be omitted in the coming months as the EU wants to implement a comprehensive traffic light system for travel across Europe. It is learned that this policy will be approved by the Council of Ministers of the European Union on October 13.
Last Thursday, countries such as Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Liechtenstein were left on the green list.
Each nation would be labelled as a different status, such as green, orange or red, on the basis of its COVID-19 case rate. People traveling from Green List countries do not have to restrict their movements after entering Ireland.
The current travel green list is not working but it will take time to implement the EU’s comprehensive travel policy, said Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.
“The current Green List is not working because just about every country we are connected to is outside the parameters of what would apply,” Ryan said at the Oireachtas Committee on Transport.
The traffic light initiative would use two parameters to determine whether people can travel to a specific county, 14-day incident rates per 100,000 people, and test positivity rates.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that Ireland is still working with EU partners to finalize talks to coordinate travel within the Union.