Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The daily numbers for Covid might be lower than they were a week or two week ago but they are still extremely high, as is the alarming number of reported deaths. We are in the middle of a crisis with no end in sight. The UK variant, with its increased transmissibility, resulted in flights being suspended from late December in recognition of that increased risk from the variant. Between 11 December and 3 January, 118,000 passengers arrived by air and a further 20,000 arrived by sea. We know there was a requirement on all passengers to fill out a passenger locator form. According to the response to a question I tabled to the Minister for Health - I got the information on 14 January - passengers who do not claim an exemption, such as air and sea crew or those travelling onward, including to Northern Ireland, are followed up and contacted by text to confirm their address and, if they do not respond, they get one or more phone calls. Ultimately, I was told, 51% of those passengers gave their place of residence. This means that a whopping 49% did not confirm where they were staying. We are currently seeing people being fined for travelling beyond 5 km if they do not have a good reason to do so. The contrast is not lost on the public. While none of us likes losing our freedoms and none of us wants to see international travellers restricted, we are in the middle of a pandemic and such high levels of non-compliance have to be a risk and must be extending or prolonging our lockdowns and everything that goes with them.

I raised this issue in regard to international travel with the Tánaiste on 4 November. I said that it seemed we were taking a fingers-crossed approach in terms of compliance. The Tánaiste told me:

One of the issues we are going to have to consider is enforcement. As the Deputy knows, at the moment the requirement for a person to restrict his or her movements having come in from abroad is not mandatory.

He went on to say:

One thing we are giving consideration to as a Government is whether we need to make mandatory and make legally enforceable the requirement for a person to restrict his or her movements or self-isolate in certain circumstances.

Since 9 January, when flights resumed, passengers originating from the UK, South Africa and, subsequently, any South American country are advised to self-isolate for a period of 14 days following their arrival. The key word here is "advised". That was according to a PQ reply I got yesterday from the Minister for Transport. Where is the enforcement that was being talked about in November? Obviously, the risks have to be managed until the vaccine provides a protection that gives us some semblance of normality. We know there are risks from new variants. We also know that we need an all-Ireland approach, yet we are not providing information that has been repeatedly sought from our Northern Ireland counterparts. Why is that?

I will reiterate my questions. In regard to the 49% of passengers who did not provide an address, what is the Government going to do about that non-compliance? Where is the enforcement? What additional measures are seriously being considered? For example, is the Government looking at mandatory quarantines in designated hotels? What is it going to do in regard to Northern Ireland and the request for information?

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