Health Minister Simon Harris has said he is not ruling out "more stringent" checks for people travelling into Irish airports.
Airports here remain open, although airlines have now grounded a majority of their passenger flights due to the coronavirus crisis.
Dublin Airport has said only a few hundreds passengers are now travelling daily - with fewer than 900 people arriving or departing on Easter Monday.
Yesterday it emerged that fruit company Keelings brought a number of workers to Ireland to pick strawberries.
The Irish firm said the season workers arrived on a chartered Ryanair flight from Bulgaria on Monday, and that they will following the public health advice of "14 days of restricted movement for any new arrivals in the country".
Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show, Health Minister Simon Harris said the food production industry here remains open as it is considered an essential service.
He said: “Flights are not grounded… but I don’t care what you’re coming to Ireland for. If you arrive in Ireland - whether you’re Irish, whether you’re not Irish, whether you’re coming to work, or for whatever reason - you have to stay at home for 14 days.
“I’ve seen very briefly the statement from the company in question that they’ve put all those staff into effective quarantine for 14 days, which would be in line with public health advice."
Minister Harris said he's not ruling out more stringent measures at Irish airports in the coming weeks.
He observed: “Particularly as we potentially move out of the very, very serious restrictions that are in place, there may then be a need for more stringent checks on the airports to make sure that while we’re all doing what we’re meant to be doing here… that we don’t have other people coming in who aren’t taking it as seriously in their country as we are here."
He noted that while there are a "very, very small" number of people coming into the country, there are valid reasons for people to be arriving in Ireland - such as healthcare workers returning from abroad, Irish citizens being repatriated and workers involved in the delivery of key medical and PPE supplies.
Minister Harris also insisted public health officials at the airport are “not just handing [arrivals] a leaflet and saying ‘on your way’”.
He said that officials are working on an app to assist contact tracing efforts, and he'd like to see that used to make sure people are isolating as they’re instructed to when they arrive here.
