Block all entry into Ireland without negative Covid test, says McDonald

An eerily quiet Dublin Airport, which has seen passengers numbers plummet since the start of the pandemic.

Nobody should be coming to Ireland without a negative Covid test, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

Speaking to This Week on RTÉ Radio, Ms McDonald said that a second negative test should also be mandatory for people arriving in the country. 

Over 54,000 people arrived in Ireland over the festive period and Ms McDonald said those people should have been tested before and after arrival.

The Government announced that from Saturday, all passengers from either the UK or South Africa will require a negative test from the previous 72 hours. 

The move is an attempt to curb the spread of Covid-19 variants originating from those countries. 

Transport minister Eamon Ryan said that a person arriving in Dublin Airport without a negative test faces a fine of €2,500 or six months in jail. 

Plans to broaden that requirement to countries on the European Commission's Red List will be considered at a later date.

However, Ms McDonald said this was unacceptable.

"We have been very clear from the get-go that the controls and protections in respect of travel onto the island have been, and remain, absolutely inadequate," she said. 

"Nobody should be coming to our shores without a negative test, it shouldn't be limited just to Britain and to South Africa. There should be a second mandatory test for people when they arrive here and people should only be coming for essential purposes. We need a proper system of quarantine and self-isolation. 

"Now, at the moment it's very much voluntary and leaves us in danger at a time where we have record levels of transmission and the very last thing we want to be importing any more variants of the virus."

The Sinn Féin leader said that her party did not oppose allowing family gatherings to allow people "the comfort" of a family Christmas, but she said that this level of contact had led to rising numbers of cases.

She added that the Leaving Cert exams should go ahead as normal "if at all possible".