Government will learn lessons from quarantine hotel breaches, says Simon Coveney

The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Co Dublin.Picture: Niall Carson/PA

The Government will learn lessons from the unauthorised departures of three people from mandatory hotel quarantining, Simon Coveney has said.

The Foreign Affairs minister conceded that Saturday’s incidents, on the second day of the arrangements, were “not ideal”.

Three people absconded from the first operating quarantine hotel – the Crown Plaza in Santry near Dublin Airport – in two different incidents on Saturday.

Two have since returned to the hotel. Gardaí were continuing to hunt for the third on Sunday.

The Defence Forces and private security guards are involved in monitoring compliance with the rules at hotel quarantine facilities, but they do not have the powers to stop people leaving.

If a person leaves without authorisation before the end of their quarantine period it is a criminal offence and gardai are notified.

Asked if the powers needed to be bolstered to ensure people were preventing from leaving, Mr Coveney said the Government was keen to ensure the hotels were not turned into “aggressive detention centres”.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure that while people are staying in quarantine, it’s a hotel atmosphere that they’re living in – for their children, for themselves, for their mental health, for the frustrations that undoubtedly builds up over up to 14 days staying in a hotel room when you’re only allowed out for a walk for a couple of times a day,” he told RTE Radio One.

“We are trying to create as normal an atmosphere as possible in these hotels, rather than some kind of military detention centre.”

Simon Coveney (Julien Behal Photography/PA)

He added: “Any country that has introduced mandatory hotel quarantine has had problems.

“This is not a straightforward process. That’s why no other country in the EU is doing it except Ireland.

“But we believe it’s justified to keep new variants out of the country and to manage the spread of this virus from abroad. So we’re committed to it, we’re going to make it work.

“The Defence Forces are present on site, but they’re not there to stop people leaving, they’re there in a supervisory capacity to make sure that all the protocols are operating as they should.

“If somebody leaves a hotel that’s being used for mandatory quarantine, then the guards will be notified straight away and they’ll take the appropriate action which is what’s happening here.

“Obviously on the first day of operation, it’s not ideal that people have tried to leave, but you know we will deal with issues as they emerge. We will learn lessons as we go.”