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

I too wish to raise the issue of the new measures the Taoiseach announced yesterday. It is obvious the public are way ahead on this matter and understand the risks from the variants, including higher mortality rates, the potential impact of reinfection and the effectiveness of the vaccines. I also acknowledge the terrible and sad milestone we reached yesterday.

There is an understandable fear among members of the public and a desire on their part for the Government to make decisions to keep the country as safe as possible. Earlier, the Minister for Public Enterprise and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, stated on Morning Irelandthat international travel is low risk. Where is the evidence for that? How is it that the UK variant is now dominant and how did it get here? How is it that the South African variant is now confirmed to be here and how did it get here? Is it still a working assumption of the Government that international travel is low risk? The Minister, on behalf of the Government, went on to say the vast majority of people are complying with the relevant restrictions. Less than a week ago, I raised the possibility of quarantine of international travellers with the Tánaiste, who told me that it would be unworkable and that the majority of people were undertaking what he called essential travel. I quoted figures provided to me by the Minister for Health which showed that 49% of international travellers, over a month-long period, even after several attempts, did not provide addresses.

Where is the evidence of compliance? How will changing the guidance to a mandatory requirement to quarantine at home change that? How will this be enforced? Has anyone talked to the Garda Commissioner about this? Do we have a sufficient number of gardaí to do what needs to be done or what is being demanded of them? I also wonder whether, when he was responding to me, the Tánaiste was aware that some of the limited number of flights that are arriving here are coming from holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands.

It is welcome that the numbers are falling. We need to keep working collectively to ensure that they continue to fall, not least because our hospitals are under extreme pressure and because they are now high-risk environments for catching Covid. I find it hard to comprehend, from the measures announced, what the Government's strategy is. It seems that the starting point is what cannot be done, with a reliance on the default position of employing lockdowns until the vaccination programme is rolled out as we hope, but that is not certain by any measure.

Is the Government still of the view that international travel is of low risk? Has it talked to the Garda Commissioner? What is the strategy for the remainder of the year? To what extent does the Government anticipate rolling lockdowns? Does the Taoiseach accept that high-profile non-compliance, such as international travel, undermines broader compliance?

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