Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said that over 1,000 Irish citizens are overseas and want to return home.
He told the Dáil that the Covid-19 pandemic saw unprecedented numbers of citizens stranded across the world. Mr Coveney said the Department of Foreign Affairs had helped over 6,000 citizens to return from 126 countries by the end of May.
This included many healthcare workers who came back to help respond to the crisis. Mr Coveney said that some of the 1,000 Irish citizens who remain overseas are located in remote regions, with poor health infrastructure, and, in many instances, are in places where severe travel restrictions remain in place.