Government TDs slam mandatory hotel quarantine system
Ahead of the Government’s much-anticipated statement on restoring aviation this summer, there was stinging criticism from the Government backbenches as to the overly restrictive system of quarantine in place in Ireland. File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
A succession of Government TDs were among many in the Dáil who called for a significant winding-down of the controversial mandatory hotel quarantine system.
Ahead of the Government’s much-anticipated statement on restoring aviation this summer, there was stinging criticism from the Government backbenches as to the overly restrictive system of quarantine in place in Ireland.
Former minister and Dublin Bay North TD Richard Bruton said there is now a significant need to rebalance the risk, pain and suffering, both economic and social, associated with the travel restrictions.
It is important that ministers look hard at this matter, he said.
“Public health advisers are, of course, experts in public health but they are not experts in seeking to balance those very substantial economic, social and personal costs that people are suffering during the restrictions against the small risks that still remain,” he added.
Clare TD Cathal Crowe said there is a need to wind back on mandatory hotel quarantine.
“Mandatory hotel quarantine should be reserved for travellers from the countries where those variants are coming from. It should not, however, be applied to the general European Union bloc, the United States or countries which have a high vaccination level, compared to us,” he said.
"The two instances are incomparable, and there should be no strict mandatory hotel quarantine regime in future. It should only be used to deal with the variants which pose an acute risk to our country,” he added.
Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey said regarding international travel, the Government has dragged its feet in publishing a plan.
It is important that that Friday’s statement deals with the harmonisation of travel in respect of the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland.
“It is also important that we remove any restrictions on quarantine requirements concerning travel from the United States. That is an important market for us. I also support the use of antigen testing,” he said.
“Again, we are behind the curve in this regard,” he added.
Fine Gael TD for Limerick Kieran O’Donnell said there are variants but we need to move away from a heavy, binary model of quarantine and towards a risk-based model. “We need some form of quarantine but it should be very limited and should not be a binary decision,” he said.
Fingal Labour TD Duncan Smith said it is lamentable that the supports given by this Government to the aviation industry were not contingent on protecting jobs and job conditions, and there will be no forgiveness for that. That is something the Government will never be able to run away from, he said.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said restrictions on international travel this year have further suppressed passenger numbers, which are down as low as 3% of normal volumes in our State airports. It has led to the collapse in forward bookings, he said.
Mr Ryan said already the principle is established in the mandatory quarantine exemption regulations that vaccinated people should not be subject to mandatory hotel quarantine.
“As the vaccination programme is rolled out and large portions of the population are fully vaccinated, I would like to see this principle applied more broadly in the context of the opening of international travel, whereby fully vaccinated people who do not present an intolerable public health risk for the spread of Covid-19 would not be subject to pre-arrival testing or quarantine requirements,” he said.
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