Micheál Martin has recovered from Covid and boarded a plane home from Washington to Dublin on Wednesday night.
The Taoiseach tested negative on antigen tests for two days in a row on Wednesday and was given the all clear to travel.
Mr Martin contracted the virus a week ago on the eve of a visit to the White House to meet US President Joe Biden on St Patrick’s Day.
He was forced into isolation and had to meet the President in a virtual encounter for the second year in a row.
But the Taoiseach will have no time to rest after his brush with the virus after getting home as he is straight on a plane to Brussels on Thursday morning to attend an EU leaders’ summit.
The summit has taken on extra importance as Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has threatened to plunge the rest of the EU into a deep recession.
Russia controls over a quarter of the oil and gas that flows into Europe and prices are going up because of the war.
This is having a knock-on effect on the price of everything else and yesterday economists of the ESRI predicted we will have inflation in Ireland of a crippling 6.7% this year.
The Government is considering reducing VAT on fuels to help cash-strapped consumers, but this has to be agreed at EU level and so it is understood this will be on the Summit agenda.
In a statement confirming the Taoiseach’s recovery, a Government spokesperson said: “The Taoiseach will attend an important meeting of the European Council in Brussels tomorrow which will discuss Russian military aggression against Ukraine, security and defence, energy, economic issues, Covid-19 and external relations.
“He has now received two successive negative Covid tests ahead of his departure from the US, and he will fly home from Washington DC this evening.”
It is also understood that Mr Biden will also join the EU leaders for the first day of the European Council meeting.
The US President is in Brussels this week for high stakes meetings at a NATO summit.
