The Government will announce further restrictions on inbound travel later on Thursday, with another 18 countries added to the list which will shortly require mandatory hotel quarantine.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this would include countries from sub-Saharan Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Austria, where authorities are currently worried about an outbreak in ski resorts.
Travellers from these countries will now be subjected to a mandatory hotel quarantine at their own expense. The legislation will be brought to Cabinet next week.
Mr Martin also said restrictions on non-essential travel will be in place for the remainder of the year.
“The European Centre for Disease Control is doing a more comprehensive global look at this and will have a report on Monday. We will take that advice in relation to countries where mandatory quarantine and will apply from here onwards,” he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Travel restrictions will remain in place this year due to growing concerns about different variants of Covid-19 and their potential to “undermine the vaccination programme”, he said.
“We're taking a very tough line over the next number of months in relation to foreign travel.”
New fines
Fines of €2,000 — four times the previous level — will also be implemented for people who ignore travel advice and go on holidays abroad.
“It's regrettable that people don't really get it that travel abroad for non-essential purposes is a breach of regulations,” Mr Martin added.
“It is very important that people adhere to these regulations. We don't want to add to the difficulties and complexities of this virus by importing mutations and new variants of the virus.
“The arrival of the variants has given an added momentum and importance to the issue of border controls, and they're important in terms of reducing the volume of variants and delaying variants coming in.”
The Government is revising its Living with Covid plan, with details due in the coming weeks on the roadmap to “reopening” the country.
Mr Martin said he hoped to have clarity for schools reopening and Leaving Cert students next week.
