With tighter restrictions on both sides of the border, traffic counters in Donegal have revealed a dramatic drop of thousands of vehicles using roads along the border since the Level Five lockdown came into force there, which requires people to stay within 5km of their homes. Restrictions on both sides of the border also prevent people from having visitors in their homes, except in some circumstances.  

According to an analysis of figures from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) traffic on some of the southern roads that either cross into Fermanagh or are regularly frequented by Fermanagh travellers have seen a dramatic reduction in traffic since the restrictions came into force. 

On Thursday last week, October 29, traffic on the N3 north of Belturbet was down to 314 cars, a reduction of 33 percent on the same day last year. On Friday, October 30, it was down 38 percent, to 282 cars. This does not include commercial vehicles. 

On the N2, north of Monaghan, car traffic was down 30 percent to 435 on Thursday and 31 percent to 388 on Friday. 

The biggest reduction was on the N16 east of Manorhamilton, the main Enniskillen to Sligo Road, which dropped 42 percent on Thursday to 199 cars and 39 percent on Friday to 201 cars. 

Meanwhile, last week also saw a reduction on traffic on Donegal’s border roads. According to analysis of the TII’s weekly figures, 

During that week there was a 22 percent drop in traffic on the N3 between Ballyshannon and Belleek, where journeys fell 22 percent from 2,805 on Tuesday, October 20 to 2,185 on Tuesday, October 27. 

There was an 18 per cent reduction on the volume of traffic on the N15 Bundoran to Sligo road at Tullaghan with 4,448 journeys recorded on October 27 compared with 5,453 a week earlier.

Elsewhere, the N15 at Barnesmore Gap, between Ballybofey and Donegal Town

have dropped by more than 20 percent since the restrictions on travel came into effect. On Tuesday last, 4,765 trips were recorded – a drop of 1,210 on the data recorded on Tuesday, October 20, before Level 5 of Covid-19 lockdown measures were introduced