British should not vacation in Ireland this summer, says Irish leader Micheál Martin.Getty Images

Irish leader Micheál Martin has told the British to stay away from Ireland this summer.

On Sunday, the Taoiseach advised British people against vacationing in Ireland.

The Irish prime minister, who was speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show,  said Ireland was taking a “cautious approach.” He warned that all visitors to the Republic would have to quarantine for two weeks.

Read More: Ireland must be cautious as COVID crisis continues

“It is under constant review because there is a lot of volatility with this virus.”

The Taoiseach’s words come as travelers arriving to the UK from more than 50 countries are no longer required to quarantine, the BBC reports.

He stressed that it was too early for people coming from Britain to vacation in Ireland without being quarantined.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Credit: ROLLINGNEWS.IE

Asked what Britain would need to do to enable its residents to travel to Ireland, Martin said:  “Suppression of the virus is the key.” 

“We have watched reports where in certain parts of the UK there are still difficulties where certain areas have had to go into lockdown.

“We are still, as our travel advisory, saying to people not to travel for non-essential travel. That is our advice to our citizens… Our priority is to get our schools open towards the end of August and to also free up capacity in our hospitals to deal with non-COVID illnesses.”

He added: "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."

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Last week, Ireland’s Department of Health recorded an increasing number of new cases of the virus linked to overseas travel, The Irish Times reports.

Ireland’s public health authorities said that 15 of 23 new confirmed cases of the virus were "directly or indirectly related to travel.”