Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt about the Minister's commitment to the environment but he, along with most others, will accept that we cannot deal with the challenges posed by the environment alone and are better off dealing with them within a multilateral framework. The most obvious multilateral framework is the European Union. While we have been laggards in the implementation of EU directives, they have served a very useful purpose in Ireland. I refer to the water framework directive, the birds directive and the habitats directive. Equally, the European Union is coming together with regard to air travel, as well as travel more generally.

What is the delay in adopting the European approach? There is currently a nascent approach. The Commission has made a recommendation and it is to be hoped it will be adopted by the Council. Can we get a commitment that we are going to adopt and apply that as soon as it is rolled out? We worked in splendid isolation through much of the summer. We had much more restrictions on international travel than other European member states. At the end of it all, we do not, unfortunately, appear to be a lot better off. There was a lot of resentment in Ireland among people who could not take holidays.

I do not expect the Minister had time to hear what was said at the Covid committee today, but an immunologist based in UCD, Professor Kirsten Schaeffer, who is also a consultant in St .Vincent's Hospital, said it does not matter where one goes on holidays. The act of going on holidays does not matter; it is what one does on holidays that matters. People should be going somewhere safe and should take the normal precautions that they take in Ireland with regard to physical distancing, cough etiquette, washing hands, etc. If people do that, they are as safe in an area with a lower incidence level in Europe as they are by staying in Ireland.

We were told for a long time that we could only travel to countries with a lower 14-day incidence rate than Ireland. As our incidence rate has, unfortunately, risen, we have not adopted that policy. We have not accepted that there are large swathes of Europe with a lower incidence rate than we have and that it is safe people to go to those places. Can we get a commitment from the Government today that as soon as a common European policy, as proposed by the Commission, is adopted that Ireland will adopt that as many other countries in the EU will?

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