Dr Gabriel Scally has said the movement of people through ports and airports is a "major issue" during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Flights into Irish airports have declined significantly in recent weeks, with Dublin Airport saying fewer than 900 passengers arrived and departed yesterday (compared to around 100,000 passengers on a typical Easter Monday).
However, Dr Scally, who led the inquiry into CervicalCheck, suggested that Ireland could be "very susceptible" to new cases coming into the country when the number of cases in the community starts coming down.
Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show, Dr Scally pointed to the experience in China as a reason for Ireland to be cautious when it comes to ports and airports.
He observed: "If you look at what China achieved in dealing with the origins of the disease… they did a very tight lockdown, and they got their numbers down to zero domestic cases for quite a while.
"But they always had scores of cases coming in from returning Chinese coming back to the country.
“I do worry, particularly in some weeks’ time as we try to come out of the [strict] isolation and social distancing… that even if we get the numbers down across the island of Ireland, it would be very susceptible to new cases coming in through ports and airports.
"That is a real issue, and I think that deserves quite a deal of attention: that free movement of people without checks, without taking temperatures… is really something that needs to be looked at."
He said everybody needs to stay within the rules, and it would be 'irresponsible' for people to go on holidays or travel internationally.
UK concerns
Elsewhere, Dr Scally raised concerns about the level of testing being carried out in England and elsewhere in the UK.
Recent reports have warned that officials figures from British authorities could be underestimating the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the community, and in particular the number of cases in care homes.
Dr Scally today observed: “It’s just over a month now since the UK stopped testing in communities - the only testing they do in the UK is in hospital or on healthcare workers or their families… that’s by-and-large it, apart from the prime minister and one or two others.
" They don’t really know what’s going on in the community.
"Ireland has been testing a lot in communities, and has identified a lot of problems in nursing homes, care homes… England, where they haven’t been testing, they’re now finding out about the problems in care homes, but only because of the number of deaths that are occurring in some of them."
Dr Scally also said it's vital that everyone works to prevent the deaths of elderly or vulnerable patients.
He explained: “We should be cherishing the elderly and vulnerable, and not discounting their lives.
"In truth, [COVID-19] doesn’t only affect them anyway - there are a lot of people who’ve had no pre-existing illnesses and quite a span of ages that have been affected."
