Mandatory hotel quarantine plan 'will not work', opposition claims

Concerns have been raised about workarounds, such as flying to Ireland via a country which does not requite quarantine

Labour leader Alan Kelly said the Government's mandatory hotel quarantine plan is 'an abject failure'. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The Government's mandatory hotel quarantine plan is "an abject failure" which "will not work", Labour leader Alan Kelly has said, as the opposition roundly criticised the plan.

The portal to book a stay in hotel quarantine opened at 7am on Tuesday morning, ahead of its introduction on Friday.

People who arrive into the country without a PCR test will be confined to their room until they get a negative result under the new hotel quarantine system.

On the issue of Mandatory Hotel Quarantine @alankellylabour has said that what the government has put in place is an “abject failure” #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/jZQiGKERTe

— The Labour Party Ireland (@labour) March 23, 2021

However, Mr Kelly said the plan was replete with loopholes and open to abuse.

We have called for quarantining for some time, but what has been put in place is an abject failure and will not work. 

There's too many loopholes – if people fly from South Africa through London, for example, if they're on a different passport, we won't know.

"Unless you self declare, this won't work. The reality is we should have mandatory quarantine for all but essential, essential workers. We will have variants coming into the country because this Government has failed.

"They have failed to deal with this issue."

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon said the same mistakes being made in the Australian system regarding the use of private security or inadequate ventilation, were being repeated here, which "was not good enough".

"We want to see every country on that list of quarantine countries to keep our society safe.

"This morning's announcement is not enough. Most of those countries have no direct flights with Ireland. Why 33? Why not all countries?"

'Half-baked'

Speaking on the issue, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said it was "half-baked".

These half-baked mandatory hotel quarantine proposals by Government are full of holes and seriously exposes Ireland to importing more Covid cases and variants.

“The decision to list just 33 countries, instead of instigating mandatory hotel quarantine for all incoming travellers, is highly problematic. The exclusion of the US and the UK, for example, from the list defies logic, as variants have been identified as coming from those countries.

“The issue of contracting out security services for the hotel quarantine presents issues as well. The Government should instead have instigated a State-led system with the provision of health staff to oversee the running of these hotels."

Public buy-in

Mr Kelly said Taoiseach Micheál Martin was "in a tricky position of his own making" on the Covid-19 response and said the Taoiseach needed "the biggest performance of his career" in the next week to ensure public buy-in to public health restrictions.

"The Government's only strategy on this is vaccinating. The public is completely lost on this.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what the Taoiseach's going to do because he's going to have to pull off the performance of his life."

Mr Kelly said a report on antigen testing had not yet been published, despite Government assurances.