Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate it is by agreement but their subscribers, who were paying their hard-earned money into private health insurance for many years, have also got views on this.

I refer to a secondary area. Apologise for having to be so blunt but I have a second question that is primarily for the Chief Medical Officer on advice in the area. When we were initially on this committee, we were told we could be broad-ranging in our questions to him. I accept it is not in the core area.

I want to specifically ask about the underpinning medical advice to the 14-day quarantine on entering the country that has come into play. As long as that remains in place Ireland is an effective lockdown zone as regards reopening for tourism, the commercial life of the leisure industry, etc. It has significant implications. It seems to many a displaced point that one has Northern Ireland with an open border with people going back and forth as we all want but people are landing in Dublin Airport faced with a 14-day lockdown, which effectively will kill our tourist industry. What is the medical advice that underpins the advice to Government on that?