Government 'at one' over need to prevent of new Covid variants in Ireland, says Simon Coveney

Meetings between multiple government departments are underway over the issue, said the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Talks to expand the mandatory quarantine list have been ongoing. Picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

The Government is “at one” on the need to respond to the advice of public health experts to keep variants of Covid-19 out of Ireland, said the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney.

There had been many meetings between the departments of Health, Justice, Transport and Foreign Affairs on the extension of the number of countries for whom mandatory quarantine would be necessary, he said.

The issue was about ensuring that when the list of countries was extended that Ireland would be ready for it in terms of capacity and legal challenges, said Mr Coveney.

The leak of the extended list of countries before plans were ready was “unfortunate,” he said.

The Government needed to ensure that there would be capacity to deal with the significant issues that would arise, he said. 

“We wanted capacity in place before we announced the list of countries,” said Mr Coveney. 

The Minister for Foreign Affairs' comments come as talks this week to expand the list of countries requiring hotel quarantine continues. 

Yesterday the Transport Minister Eamon Ryan indicated France, Germany, and Italy will be added to the hotel quarantine list next week. 

Mr Ryan also denied there is a significant row within the Government over extending the list of countries that are subject to mandatory quarantining. 

However, he admitted there were ongoing "different opinions" and "different views".