Testing at Dublin Airport
Two COVID-19 testing facilities have opened at Dublin Airport. The testing facilities, which are operated by healthcare firms Randox and RocDoc, will offer passengers and consumers the option of either a drive-through test or a walk-in test, with results available within 24-48 hours.
Prices, which are set by the providers of the service, will start at €99 and both PCR and LAMP testing will be available. The testing facilities are fully open to the public, whether they require a test for travel or for another reason.
All customers will need to pre-book their test online in advance and this can be done directly with the healthcare company in question. Links to the booking portals will also be available on the Dublin Airport website. The healthcare providers that are working with Dublin Airport have testing capacity of more than 12,000 tests per day if needed, and this will shortly be expanded to 15,000. For more information on these screening services please click the links below:
The testing facilities named above are all third-party commercial testing facilities and are not part of daa plc, Dublin Airport or Cork Airport. Accordingly, daa plc does not accept any responsibility or liability for these services, including but not limited to the results provided by these services, the costs of the services or the turnaround times.
To read the full press release about onsite testing facilities at Dublin Airport, please click here
EU Traffic Light System for Travel
The Irish Government has implemented the new ‘traffic lights’ approach to travel, which applies to countries in the European Union/European Economic Area and to the UK.
Within the ‘traffic lights’ system, regions across the EU, EEA and the UK are categorised as green, orange and red, on the basis of the risk levels associated with COVID-19. A map showing the designation of each regions is published each week by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), based on agreed criteria, including the 14-day cumulative incidence rate, testing rate and testing positivity rates.
Arriving into Dublin Airport
Under the traffic lights system, there will be no entry restrictions on passengers arriving into Ireland from green regions. Each Member State decides on what entry restrictions it will apply to passengers travelling from red, orange and grey regions. The Irish Government requests that all passengers entering the State from red and orange regions are requested to restrict their movements for 14 days.
The request to restrict movements for 14 days can be waived for passengers arriving from an orange region, if they have received a negative/not detected PCR test result during the three days before arriving in Ireland. In this case, passengers are requested to have supporting evidence of the negative test in their possession, according to Irish Government guidelines.
From midnight November 29, passengers arriving into Ireland from red regions will be allowed to move freely once they pass a PCR Covid-19 test five days following their arrival. This now gives passengers the opportunity to reduce the 14-day quarantine currently in place. Passengers from ‘grey regions’ such as the USA and Canada will be treated the same way as passengers arriving in from EU ‘red’ regions. The new system is intended to bring greater consistency and transparency across Europe.
Pre-Departure COVID-19 Screening
In the case of departing passengers, it is important to note that some countries, including those in the EU, may require visitors to have a negative COVID-19 test result in advance of travel, either to enter the country in the first place and/or eliminate the requirement to quarantine on arrival. In most cases, a certificate showing the negative COVID-19 test result must confirm this test has been performed within 72 hours of arriving in the country, state or region.
These requirements change rapidly, and passengers are advised to check the current COVID-19 entry requirements for a particular country, state or region before departing Ireland. They can find the latest and most up to date information regarding entry restrictions to EU countries here