Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. We would like to see more co-ordination at an EU level although there has already been quite a lot, in terms of the traffic light system which is now providing a lot more certainty. The truth is that very few people are travelling anyway. The Government guidelines are very clear that any international travel should be limited to essential travel under level 5 restrictions but we are working towards a situation where we hope that can change as we move into next year.

The passenger locator form is not something that relies on goodwill or voluntary co-operation. It is a legal requirement to fill out a passenger locator form on entering the country. It is also a legal requirement to fill it out accurately. If a person puts false information on the passenger locator form, he or she is breaking the law and the penalties for that are quite severe. Travellers who are exempt from the restrictions because they are essential workers or because they have taken a PCR test and are coming from an orange region will have to include that information on the passenger locator form and do so truthfully. Otherwise, they are breaking the law. I hope we will be able to accommodate something similar when vaccination becomes available so that people coming into Ireland who have been vaccinated can complete a passenger locator form that recognises this fact. Obviously, we will have to take public health advice on this but my expectation is that if people are vaccinated, they will be able to avoid the restrictions that currently apply to international travel, particularly those arriving from orange locations. We are working on this and the more we can do together, across the EU, the more effective it can be. However, Ireland needs to protect its citizens against the potential threat of a reseeding of the virus through international travel. We must be careful.

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