Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the regulations, I asked the Attorney General, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Justice and Equality to examine this issue several days ago, which they have. Having looked at the different options, it is their view that the regulations do not need to be amended. However, what is required is greater co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána. People coming from Northern Ireland into the Republic are breaching Northern Ireland law and vice versa. Unless we prohibit people crossing the Border, which we are just not going to do, what is required is co-operation. Somebody going beyond the 2 km restriction without a very good reason, such as being a cross-Border worker, is breaching the law in one jurisdiction. What is really required is co-operation between the police authorities. We will not to make it illegal for people from Northern Ireland to come into the Republic of Ireland for reasons with which the Deputy will agree. Enforcement is going to be the issue which will require co-operation between the PSNI and An Garda Síochána. I am reassured by what the Garda Commissioner said about this in recent days.

I am afraid I cannot answer definitively the Deputy's straight question as to who is advising Keelings. As far as that debacle is concerned, it is probably a case of there being many arms of government and all of those arms not having spoken to each other. I believe that is what went wrong in this case. We do now have a much better procedure in place. Anyone entering the airport has to fill in a form, declare where they are staying, give their mobile number and other such information to ensure they self-isolate and self-restrict for 14 days. We now have a mechanism by which Department of Justice and Equality staff can check with people to ensure they are following those instructions.

See this speech in context