280 people fined at Dublin Airport for non-essential travel between Thursday and Sunday of last week

The fine for leaving the country for non-essential reasons has also been increased to €500 as of yesterday.

A non-essential holiday has become very expensive as of this week. 

The gardaí can't turn people around at Dublin Airport but can fine you €500 per person each way, leaving and coming back into the country.

A mandatory system of self-isolation with heavy penalties for anyone arriving into the country is also coming in the next few days.

But it will be weeks before the system of mandatory quarantine in hotels planned for people coming from South Africa and Brazil, or people who arrive here without a negative PCR test, is in place.

This is because the government needs to draft new legislation to make it legal and not in breach of any other personal rights. 

The hope in government is to have that in place by March, but it's not guaranteed, which led to some unhappiness among Ministers at their cabinet meeting earlier.