International travel PCR testing
Deputy Doherty presses for mandatory PCR testing for incoming international travellers, saying there has been no movement. The Tánaiste says travel has been greatly reduced, testing and quarantine rules are already in place, and hotel quarantine legislation is coming next week.
I must point out to the Tánaiste that I made my call for the Central Bank to intervene and asked for the Government to support it before papers were lodged in the High Court. That is just for the record.
We continue to be the laggard when it comes to international travel. When I last raised the issue with the Tánaiste, he said he would examine making it mandatory for all international travellers to take a PCR test post arrival, as recommended by NPHET, but there have been no subsequent updates in this regard and no movement on the issue. Will the Tánaiste tell us when that will happen? In addition, the Government has continued to move at a snail's pace on the introduction of hotel quarantine for international arrivals, despite the fact that 60% of travellers are, according to the Taoiseach, travelling for non-essential reasons. The Tánaiste knows the British Government is moving ahead with this in the coming days. He knows there is no international travel into the North barring that from Britain. When, therefore, will we see legislation to deal with this issue put before the House and crucially, when will we see hotel quarantine introduced here?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. What we have done thus far is to reduce international and oversea travel into Ireland by about 95%. Anybody arriving in the country is required to have a PCR test taken three days before arrival. There is 98% or 99% compliance with that which is very good. Mandatory home quarantine is now the law. Next week we expect to have legislation on mandatory hotel quarantine. As I said earlier, we are adding 18 countries to the list for which mandatory hotel quarantine will be required, increasing it to 20.
The laggard is Northern Ireland. It may well be the case that at the moment, there is not any travel from beyond Britain and Ireland but there is travel from Britain into Northern Ireland and there is no requirement to have a PCR test, nor one for mandatory home quarantine or for mandatory hotel quarantine. I appeal to the Deputy, as a member of the Sinn Féin leadership, to use his influence on the co-leaders of that government to change that policy.