Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Friday, 24 July 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Covid-19: Impact on International Travel

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We wish them well in their recovery and thank them for all the important work they do.

On the challenge for the sector overall, I take the points made about Ireland being an outlier but it strikes me that there is a fundamental conflict between the wishes for public health when NPHET has been very clear in its requests here, and the interests of the aviation sector more generally around the issue of movement. It is clear that the single greatest tool we have in our fight against Covid-19 is quarantine and the restriction on movement. Aviation is the exact opposite of this, regardless of what might be said on the evidence base. It is a question of the lack of quality of our evidence base rather than it not existing. The virus is spread by the movement of people and the aviation sector and travel involves such movement. That challenge must be squared. The Government seems not to have persuaded people of the model it is proposing. I believe there is a lack of confidence among communities and even within Government. Given that we have we have the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, data, we have European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, guidelines, will Mr. Cullen outline what model he would like to see implemented? Is it testing and tracing at airports with an all-Ireland approach? What would going through an airport look like?

As far as I can see there is no mandatory wearing of masks in Dublin Airport, or it is certainly not implemented. Reference was made to the passenger locator form as being quite inadequate. I agree with Mr. Cullen there. What model would Mr. Cullen envisage that would give confidence to people in Ireland that the system is working here and that the people who come through the system and others are not being put at risk?

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