Cabinet ministers told to avoid public comment on challenges of new travel restrictions 

Cabinet ministers have been warned that rolling out the State’s travel restrictions “remains challenging” and they have been told to not talk about it publicly until matters are resolved.

Cabinet ministers have been warned that rolling out the State’s travel restrictions “remains challenging” and they have been told to not talk about it publicly until matters are resolved.

According to the Cabinet memorandum presented to ministers on Tuesday, public commentary on new restrictions on travel from Great Britain should be avoided until “we engage with stakeholders” as the system will “require the cooperation of private operators”.

Ministers have been told that the risks associated with the further easing of public health restrictions in July will “continue to be assessed and monitored over the coming weeks.” 

The Cabinet is set to agree that persons arriving into the State from Great Britain, and who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, will continue to be subject to the statutory requirement of self-quarantining for a period of up to 14 days, which may be reduced, where the person obtains a negative PCR test results, taken five days or more after arrival.

Ministers will also agree that people arriving into the State from Britain, who are not fully vaccinated against Covid-19, will be subject to the statutory requirement to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days.

However, this may be reduced to 10 days, where the person obtains a negative result of a PCR test taken five days or more after arrival, and in a second such test 10 days or more after arrival.

It was confirmed today that passenger numbers travelling through Irish airports was 93% lower in the first three months of this year than a year ago.

The new research shows that more than 5.5 million fewer passengers used Irish airports between January and March of this year, compared to quarter one of 2020.

The number of flights to and from Irish airports fell by more than 42,000 compared to the same period in 2020 while the number of passengers arriving to or departing from Ireland in March fell by 90% compared to the same month in 2020.

Cabinet has also heard that people who received AstraZeneca as their first Covid-19 vaccine dose will not receive another type of vaccine for their second shot.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, on behalf of Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, told Cabinet that those who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca will have to wait eight weeks for their second jab of the same vaccine.

The decision means the Government will not be able to reduce the gap any further than two months for those who received AstraZeneca.