'A litany of disasters' — Family quarantining in Dublin hotel say system is not fit for purpose

Members of the defence forces look on as passengers arriving at Dublin Airport load luggage onto a bus before being transported to a hotel for a mandatory 12-day quarantine. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

An Irish woman undergoing mandatory hotel quarantining in Dublin has said the system is not fit for purpose. 

Michelle O’Dowd and her husband and three children are spending 12 days at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dublin.

They arrived home from Perth in Australia on Friday, which is not currently one of the countries on the Government’s list of ‘high-risk’ countries for travel.

However, as Ms O’Dowd’s family had a stopover in Dubai in the UAE, which is on the high-risk list, they are subject to the recently-introduced hotel quarantine measures.

"Protocols weren't followed properly from the minute we landed, there were no tests on arrival,” she said on Newstalk Breakfast.

It was just a litany of disasters, to be honest.

Ms O’Dowd, who will take up a position as a nurse at Sligo University Hospital once her quarantine has ended, said she has no problem with the idea of mandatory hotel quarantining, given how well it worked for Australia.

However, she believes Ireland should have implemented the system a year ago.

"It does really work but unfortunately it's been left too late here and you can't turn back time," Ms O'Dowd said.

She said it is unfair that her family needs to quarantine while those who arrived in Ireland from the US and Europe yesterday do not need to do the same.

"I think we spent 45 minutes on the ground in Dubai, that's not including the time getting off the plane, walking through Dubai airport, my kids got a McDonald's, there was no one in McDonald's, and we sat on an empty plane.

We could not be safer or more lower risk arriving in Dublin Airport yesterday.

"If it’s a rule for one person, it should be the rule for everybody,” she said.

But, she said, there were other issues.

Ms O’Dowd said her family only found out they would need to pay €6,000 to quarantine a couple of days before they left Australia.

She explained that quarantining families are permitted to have three 15 minute breaks in a special area outside the hotel once their PCR tests — given on the first day of quarantine — come back negative.

“I thought there was inadequate PPE worn, the testing wasn't done, so there were lots of other issues, but it was the lack of space for our physical and mental health and my children's health that tipped me over the edge.”

Meanwhile, gardaí are still searching for one of the three people who reportedly absconded from their mandatory hotel quarantine in Dublin.

The trio left the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry yesterday, but two have since been located.

Friday was the first day on which people arriving in Ireland were subject to the new hotel quarantine rules. 

The booking portal for mandatory hotel quarantining went live on the government website earlier this week.

Those who break quarantine face fines of up to €2,000, risk a month's imprisonment, or both.