Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the question of international travel and some recent developments in that regard, and hopefully get some clarification from the Tánaiste.

Last week, the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, when he appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications Networks, was asked about the possibility of restrictions on air travel being eased in order to facilitate people to travel here at Christmas. His response was that international travel is not safe and movement of people around areas with high incidence of this disease, particularly Europe and North America, is not safe. He went on to make the point that it is impossible to gauge what the situation in regard to the virus might be in six weeks' time, which is fair enough. In recent days, the Government announced new proposals in respect of travel and change in the regime in this regard. A number of those proposals require clarification.

It goes without saying that I fully appreciate the importance of Christmas for people, especially families. Many people, including me, have family members living abroad who have not been able to come home for the past year. We would all really love to have some kind of normal Christmas and to spend time with our families. I also fully appreciate the importance of Christmas for the business community in terms of the amount of trade done in the weeks coming up to Christmas and at Christmas in general. However, it is really important that we do not engage in short-term thinking. We need to consider the time horizon relating to the taking of some of these decisions and prioritise keeping the downward pressure on the number of virus cases. The last thing anybody wants, either the public or the business community, is that we would go into a third lockdown in January. It is important to bear in mind that public health considerations and business and economic considerations are two sides of the same coin.

I am seeking clarification from the Tánaiste. Last year, approximately 1.2 million people passed through Dublin Airport. What kind of modelling has been done in respect of the potential for a spike in the virus figures? Specifically, was the CMO consulted about these proposed new arrangements? What are the proposals for oversight of the testing arrangements that the Government suggests would apply to people coming from red zones and orange zones? As far as I know, the public health advice is that there is a need for a double test to ensure that a person is negative. For people who do have a test when they arrive here and it proves positive, is the Government satisfied that there is sufficient capacity in the tracing system to be able to respond to what will inevitably be a spike in positive results?

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