Traffic levels in Ireland are on the rise as the economy begins its recovery after overcoming the latest set of lockdown restrictions.

The pandemic was synonymous with quiet streets in the major cities in Ireland, and around the world, but with consumers getting back out and spending, driving stronger growth predictions for the country, the streets are filling up with vehicles once again.

The latest CSO figures show Dublin traffic rose by 20% in the last week of January, compared to the first week of the new year, although still short of the pre-pandemic figures.

The figures show there is still a 9.6% reduction in cars on our roads in the capital compared with the same period in 2020.

There was also an increase over the same period in the number of bus and rail journeys from 2,055,852 to 3,111,354, but that number is two-thirds of the pre-pandemic levels of March 2020.

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Nele van der Wielen, Statistician for the CSO, said: "In line with the easing of COVID-19 restrictions traffic volumes increased during January 2022. Data for the end of January (week beginning 24 January 2022) show that car traffic volumes in Dublin increased by 19.6% compared with week one of this year.

"Bus and rail journeys follow a similar trend and increased throughout January from 2,055,852 to 3,111,354. However, at the end of January, the total number of rail and bus journeys remained below pre-COVID-19 levels. The total number of rail and bus journeys in the week commencing 23 January was 66% of those taken in early March 2020."

Traffic from Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) has increased when compared with pre-pandemic figures. HGV traffic volumes were 13.2% higher in regional sites compared with the same week in 2019 and 8.1% higher compared with the same week in 2020.

Passenger numbers handled by Dublin airport was almost five times that of January 2021 but still 53% lower than January 2020