Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald says she'd regard people visiting parents overseas as being necessary travel.
She has called for any travel advice to Irish people to be "unambiguous", even if it's difficult for the airlines and aviation sector.
It comes amid concerns that many families will be losing money due to the ongoing advice by the Government to avoid all non-essential travel overseas.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Deputy McDonald said she'll be holidaying in Ireland this year despite usually being 'person number one heading for the airport and the beach every summer'.
She said: "I'm conscious though there are lots of families who started paying for their holidays months and months ago... it's a big call for a family to say we're going to forgo €2,000 or €3,000, maybe more.
"We need firmer advice and guidance from Government, and then I think we need to look at every way that we can to support families. The current Government won't support every penny that families are out by, but I certainly think we have to look imaginative at how we can support families.
"If the message is to holiday at home, it should be unambiguously to holiday at home.
"People feel there is an ambiguity - they feel they are being told if they're good boys and girls they wouldn't travel, but they still can. I think that's a real problem for families."
She suggested many people do feel there is an ambiguity in the advice - that they are being told if "they're good boys and girls they wouldn't travel, but they still can".
Deputy McDonald said the advice now needs to be clear.
She observed: "If the guidance from Government was that it is only necessary travel - and by that I also mean people who need to see parents overseas... I would regard that as necessary travel, to go and see your mam and dad.
"If the advice is only necessary travel, then all parts of public policy should follow. I know it's hard on aviation, I know it's hard on the airlines - but it is what it is. Collectively we need to get through this period."
