Bringing a dog to Ireland on holiday

Hi
I would like to drive over from England, and potentially do a week in NI and a week in Ireland.
We have a dog, My question is - can we travel to NI without a pet passport, and then can we go to the Republic of Ireland also or do we need the EU pet passport thing?
Thank you

Hi Kristie!

It is great to hear you want to come visit us with your furry friend!

If you're driving from England to Northern Ireland with your dog, things have actually gotten easier from 4 June 2025. You don’t need an EU Pet Passport or an Animal Health Certificate (AHC) anymore. Instead, you'll need to make sure your dog is microchipped and apply for the new Northern Ireland Pet Travel Document. It’s free, lasts for your pet’s lifetime, and means you can bring your dog into NI without needing rabies vaccinations or tapeworm treatments, as long as you’re not continuing into the EU from there.

However, if you're planning to go from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland—even just for a few days—you will need to follow EU pet travel rules. That means your dog needs to be microchipped (which they already will be), vaccinated against rabies (at least 21 days before travel), and you’ll need an Animal Health Certificate issued by a vet no more than 10 days before entering the Republic. Tapeworm treatment isn’t required for this part of the journey, which is one less thing to worry about, but do check the rules again if you're planning to return to Great Britain afterwards. So in short, travel to Northern Ireland is fairly straightforward under the new rules, but crossing into the Republic means switching to full EU pet travel requirements.

Hope that helps!  For more information, have a look at this page on bringing your pet to the EU (including Ireland), or if you have any other questions, please ask, and I will do my best to answer! 

Cathaoir 

Hi Cathaoir,

Maybe you would be able to help me with better understanding below case:)

I am EU citizen, I travel with my pet dog from Frankfurt to Dublin. Later I take a car and travel to Belfast. Later I take the ferry and travel to Liverpool. 

Before that trip i checked all the documents, micro chip, passport and tapework treatment are all in place before entering UK area.

After 2 weeks i want to get back the same route so Liverpool - Belfast - Dublin without any stops so i can fly back to Frankfurt next day

I am unable to understand whether I need to tapeworm treat my pet before leaving UK by ferry to NI, if 2 weeks before I did tapeworm treated it before arriving to UK to meet UK requirements.

I already traveld like that in August 2025 and I arrived to the Belfast Vet centre after leaving ferry, they checked passport of the pet and thats it - we did not do tapeworm treatments that time when leaving UK

The more I read the more i am unsure if that was sort of incident, or we really dont need such treatment stamped in passport uppon our return to EU (Dublin)

I would really appriciate if anyone would help me to understand whta to do to have a safe trip:) 

BR

Hi,
It's lovely to hear that you will be travelling over to Ireland with your dog! 🐕

Before your trip from the island of Ireland to the UK, you will have all of the paperwork and tapeworm treatments administered and entered into the documents. As you will be returning from the UK, after 2 weeks have passed, you will need to have the tapeworm treatment repeated and added to the documents. This is because every time you return to Ireland, you need to have this treatment for your dog. The Citizens Information website has details that apply in this case (step 5). I am not sure why this wasn't asked for when you visited in August.

I hope this helps, and you have a great time during your stay here on the island of Ireland.

Martin