Varadkar calls UK travel penalties, including 10 years in prison, 'a bit extreme'

On the Government’s plans here, Mr Varadkar said the legislation will be readied for passage through the Dáil and Seanad next week. Picture: Julien Behal Photography/PA Wire

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said new UK penalties including ten years in prison for falsely filling out a passenger information form are “more authoritarian” than we would find acceptable in Ireland.

He was speaking as Britain is to introduce tighter border controls next week against new variants of the coronavirus, requiring hotel quarantine for arrivals from high-risk countries.

Mr Varadkar, speaking at Government Buildings at the launch of new business supports, said the potential ten-year jail term for false information on UK passenger locator forms "was a bit extreme".

He also said that it is the firm intention to re-open construction sites not before but on March 5 but other sectors such as personal services such as hairdressers and barbers will “be much later”.

On the Government’s plans here, Mr Varadkar said the legislation will be readied for passage through the Dáil and Seanad next week.

“As I said on the day the government made the policy decision to move to mandatory quarantine that it would take a few weeks to operationalize mandatory home quarantine is now already law. Next step is the mandatory hotel quarantine. We could have legislation as early as next week, I can't promise you that,” Mr Varadkar said.

Mr Varadkar said as much as possible Ireland and the UK should “work together” and develop a common policy on international travel but said the matters are complicated.

“People here have much stronger rights around bodily autonomy and freedom and so on are also European citizens too, which means that we have the right to freedom of movement within the European Union, although not without restrictions.” 

“So, all those things make our situation more complicated and they wouldn't be if, for example, we were a different jurisdiction,” he said.

“Public health has to come first and we're going to need to find some ways around that. What we should have Britain and Ireland as two islands, neighbouring jurisdictions working together is a common policy on international travel. That makes sense for reasons I think everyone understands that doesn't necessarily mean that the policies have to be exactly the same, or that everything has to be exactly the same and they've got that, that's probably a little bit more authoritarian than I think we would find acceptable there,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said the Government is already considering a further tightening of restrictions on international travel.

The Government would continue to coordinate with Britain to make sure theirs is effective cooperation. Mr Ryan had said more extensive restrictions would be introduced for international travel.

He said more countries apart from Brazil and South Africa will be added to the mandatory quarantine list, but the system needs to get up and running first.