USA, France, and Germany to be added to mandatory quarantine list

The addition of the three countries caused a split in the Cabinet — but that rift was 'mostly sorted' after officials met today

The USA, France and Germany are to be added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list. File Picture: PA Wire

The USA, France and Germany look set to be added to Ireland's mandatory hotel quarantine list from next week.

Sources said that the issue, which had caused division among the Cabinet had been "mostly sorted" at a high-level meeting of officials today. Government sources said that scaling up the operations of the quarantine facilities, run by hotel group Tifco, required a level of training and preparation for staff and state bodies.

The additions are likely to be made at next Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, but could be made sooner, one source said. When countries are added to the Category 2 list, it takes 72 hours for their status to become active. After that, all passengers who have come from, or transited through, those states in the last 14 days must undergo a 12-day quarantine at a State-designated facility.

Countries with Covid variants

Two hotels are currently being used for mandatory quarantining, and the hotel chain has another two hotels set aside if they are required. More accommodation available if it is needed. Sources said that modelling is undertaken to decide the number of hotel rooms needed on a given day.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly had said that EU countries which have variants should be added to the hotel quarantine list. He added that Ireland was "looking at" the USA, France, and Germany, but did not include Italy in that list.

"The system opened up two weeks ago," he said. "In the first week of operation, we added 33 countries. Last week, with the second week of operation, I added another 26 countries. 

"This week, we're going through a consultation process on what would be the most significant countries.

We're looking at the USA, France, Germany. Austria, obviously, is already on the list. They have been identified as variants of concerned countries and my view is they do need to be on the list. 

Government 'at one' on the issue

Mr Donnelly does not need Cabinet backing to add countries, but will need the approval of Paul Gallagher, the attorney general, who flagged his concerns with the proposals last week. It is understood that foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney had also raised concerns. However, he said that the Government is "at one" on the issue now. 

He said the concern had been about ensuring that, when the list of countries was extended, Ireland would be ready for it in terms of capacity and legal challenges.

He said the leaking of the extended list of countries before plans were ready was “unfortunate”. Government sources have said that they are sensitive to such leaks as it may encourage last-minute travel.

'Capacity to deal with issues'

The Government needed to ensure that there would be capacity to deal with the significant issues that would arise, Mr Coveney said: 

We wanted capacity in place before we announced the list of countries. 

The addition of the countries comes after a recommendation from the Travel Expert Advisory Group in late March.

The group had recommended that the current list of 33 be more than doubled, with 43 countries added to it, including America. In the end, an additional 26 states were added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list, with one country removed. The additions brought the number of countries on the list to 58.