Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not. However the Minister has ignored the advice of the virologists, epidemiologists and the public health experts. He did not answer the question because he knows it would not suit him and would show that the Government has departed from the public health advice, from the expert advice. The Minister is saying there is no threat of bringing the virus back from these countries because they have a lower infection rate but what about solidarity? We might be taking the infection to them. Has the Minister considered that? This is Ryanair dictating public health policy. That is what is actually going on and victims of that are the people who are getting their pandemic unemployment payments cut.

They were understandably confused by the mixed messages, whereby the Department's website explicitly states the injunction against non-essential travel does not apply to 13 countries, including Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus. That is what it says. Some people followed that advice and then had their payments cut.

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