The new system of mandatory hotel quarantine will go live later this week.
An online booking portal for hotel quarantine is now available for 33 countries.
People arriving will have to stay in a hotel for 12 nights from this Friday.
The earliest flight that arrives here that day will be the first subject to the system.
Stephen Donnelly says it'll act as a deterrent to people travelling here.
"We've been working very closely with the UK, who have a very similar system to ours," he says.
The Health Minister claims there was an 80% to over 90% reduction in travel in the UK with their system.
Mandatory hotel quarantine is complex and will prove challenging at times. There will inevitably, and unfortunately, be hard individual cases. It's important to be honest about that.
— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) March 23, 2021
Opposition Says 33 Counties Is Too Few
However People Before Profit says it's "too little too late."
Deputy Paul Murphy says it won't prevent Covid, and "most importantly new variants," arriving here.
He's pointed to minutes from a NPHET meeting where experts were in favour of "full mandatory quarantine for everyone coming in."
Paul Murphy has called for the system to apply to all incoming travellers, saying it doesn't make sense to have a shortlist of 33.
The portal can be accessed here.
