A public health expert has said there needs to be an all-island approach to the issue of Covid-19 and overseas travel.
Professor Gabriel Scally's comments came as a further easing of coronavirus restrictions came into effect in Northern Ireland yesterday.
This included the removal of requirements for people to self-isolate after travelling to Northern Ireland from more than 50 low to medium risk countries.
The list of countries involved includes the Republic, Italy, Spain, France and Germany.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sarah McInerney, Prof Scally said governments north and south of the border have to cooperate on this issue.
"We can't do this in just one part of the Ireland," he said.
"There is a memorandum of understanding between north and south that's been signed.
"I think with a new Taoiseach and Minister for Health, it's time to reach out to the First Minister in the north and Minister for Health and have a real proper discussion about how we can have a zero Covid island and that means taking hard decisions about quarantine of travellers."
Prof Scally said people coming into Ireland should be quarantined until it is confirmed that they do not have the virus.
"We shouldn't be having individual travellers coming into Ireland without them being quarantined and I mean properly quarantined and that means making use of hotels and other facilities around airports that are not being fully used."
He said eliminating the virus is "tantalisingly before us" and it would be "terrible" after all the sacrifices made and the deaths from Covid-19 "if we left that prize slip out of our grasp" either by risky behaviour or allowing the importation of a lot more cases.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed concerns about travellers coming into the Republic from Britain.
Speaking on Sunday Politics tomorrow, Mr Martin will say he believed travel off the island of Ireland at this time was "problematic".
"We have issues with the UK, in terms of Leicester where it closed down recently," he says.
"It's not just the UK; it's international travel in general. Our current advice is against international travel off the island of Ireland because we believe it's problematic and our public health people are saying that to us."
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Michael McBride said he has "no doubt" there will be "localised clusters and outbreaks" in terms of a second wave of Covid-19.
He also said it was a "possibility" that local lock-downs could happen.
In terms of the contact tracing app, Mr McBridge said he anticipated that ministers would "be able to provide an update on where we are with the app" by late July or early August.
