I wish to raise with the Taoiseach his Government’s handling of the issue of international travel. There is absolute public confusion and a lack of public confidence in the Government’s whole approach which has been marked as cack-handed and, frankly, operating on a wing and a prayer. Yesterday the Taoiseach was at odds with the Tánaiste, and the confusion between the two hardly adds to public confidence. Instead of managing the risks that we clearly face, he has now pursued a reckless policy with virtually no checks and balances.

In the small hours of last night the Government published its green list in which it itemised 15 countries and territories for which it has reduced the security profile. It has put itself at odds with the public health advice, which is that there be no international travel, and has at once said to the public that they can travel with reduced risks but has asked that they do not do so. Ordinary people have been thrown under the bus. They face the situation that those who listen to the public health advice and forgo their holidays are potentially out of pocket by thousands of euro. Those who do not heed the public health advice and travel will do so uninsured.

The other problem is that the Taoiseach and Government have not produced a red list of those countries and zones where there is a very high prevalence of this virus. There is a deep concern that people are travelling to this island from those places, and when they arrive here, they are asked simply to fill out a form and restrict their movements. There is no isolation and no proper form of quarantine. Putting a form online is not going to address any of this.

I also remind the Taoiseach that the bottom line outside of holiday season is to get our children back to school, to get people back to education and back to work safely and keep them at work safely. We need to get back to basics and the Government needs to have a proper plan and strategy.

I have two questions. First, what will the Taoiseach do to support those families who listen to the public health advice and do not travel internationally and find themselves out of pocket, in some cases by thousands of euro? Second, what is he doing to protect public health on the island from travel into the country from those places with a very high prevalence of the virus? What proper operable and effective quarantine and safety measures will he put in place?

I thank the Deputy for her question. When I was Leader of the Opposition I saw my role as one of making a constructive contribution towards protecting public health and to rise above partisan political sniping.

Is that comment directed at the Tánaiste?

That said, the Leader of the Opposition suggested I was at odds with the Tánaiste, which I am not, but I have to put it to the Deputy that she seems to be at odds with herself. I am clear that the safest thing to do is not to travel. That is the clear message. We are saying to people to holiday at home this year. We have in respect of those 15 countries applied the normal precautions appellation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which basically means that when people return home, they will not have to restrict their movements.

The Deputy and her party had a view that it was okay to open up the island to 59 countries. That is a fact. The Northern Ireland Executive signed up a fortnight ago to an opening up of the island. We are taking a much more conservative approach here. All of the 15 countries would have fewer than five infected persons in 100,000. They are actually safer right now, if I use that phrase, or have a lower incidence, to be more accurate, then we do here in the Republic. I did point that out and I understand that there are different jurisdictions and all of that, but this was signed off on by Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. That has to be said. I am still willing to work constructively to see how we can protect the island, because it raises challenges for us.

We decided last evening to move the passenger locator form to an electronic basis. The key, if we are honest, is testing and contact tracing. That remains the gold standard in trying to suppress the virus. The timing of the engagement, the quicker one can contact the person who may be a contact of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, is the key response to determine our future capacity to keep on top of the virus.

I also make the point, and it has to be said, that in the first 12 days of July 2019, we were looking at 1.469 million people arriving in through Dublin Airport. The figure this July is about 134,000 people. There has been a lot of hype and concern about travel. I acknowledge the concern but we need to keep it in perspective. There has been a 91% drop in travel through Dublin Airport in the first 12 days of July between this year and last year. The issue, as I said yesterday, is how we live with Covid-19 over the next 12 to 15 months in the absence of a vaccine being discovered. That is something that should exercise all of us in this House in terms of the broader challenges facing society.

I hope that the Tánaiste desists from the type of sniping that the Taoiseach has described. We need an all-island approach, and I hope that the North-South Ministerial Council meeting next week will provide an opportunity for Dublin to step forward, stop being passive, and to champion that very approach. Our position is well known within the five party Executive, which is that we need every protection for the island as a single unit. That means effective quarantining methods and not placing a form online and championing this as some great transformation and intervention. It is not. It is about testing, tracing, isolating and having effective and robust procedures for those 134,000 people who have arrived on our island. Currently, that is not the case and well the Taoiseach knows it.

In respect of families here and their holiday plans, the Irish Travel Agents Association estimate that €800,000 a day is being lost by consumers. These are the immediate people caught in the crossfire of this. The Government has done precious little to intervene on behalf of those families who do heed the public health advice and choose to holiday at home. I ask again how and when will the Government intervene for these families?

In the first instance, on the all-island question put by the Deputy, I will work towards achieving the maximum synergy between the Northern Ireland Executive and our Government in the suppression of the virus on the island of Ireland. That is very important. I acknowledge, however, the de facto situation in terms of the roles and responsibilities of the Northern Executive and the fact that it is connected to the public health advice in the UK. There are issues that we should acknowledge in that respect. People will say in a throwaway phrase that it should be all-Ireland, and we will all agree with that. The reality of doing that, however, is clearly challenging. The joint memorandum between the chief medical officers in the North and in the Republic is good.

That is a welcome start. The North-South Ministerial Council will give us a further opportunity and I welcome the fact that we are having it at the end of July for the first time in three and a half years. That will give us an opportunity to create structures to discuss these things. We discussed travel in a constructive way last week. I just made the point that we were concerned about travel and that everybody needed to keep a watchful eye, North and South, on the travel situation. We are strengthening our position on incoming travel, low though it is compared with prior to Covid.

On the Deputy's question about supporting people, there have been significant and unprecedented supports through the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy scheme for the population in general. We have not come forward with specific proposals relating to compensation of those who perhaps had to cancel holidays that they perhaps booked some time ago. In the stimulus programme, we will develop significant initiatives to support the hospitality and tourism sector via means that will help ordinary citizens to avail of such hospitality and tourism facilities in Ireland.

Will the Government have an intervention for those families?