Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are introducing it and the legislation will give us broad capacity to extend it. The numbers have collapsed to very low levels in terms of people coming into the Republic and we must maintain that over the coming period. That is the reality. The Deputy is correct in terms of identifying the variants as the significant factor now in how we deal with international travel. There is a lot of fear and anxiety out there. Bar some Deputies, this is the first time a call has come from different parties for mandatory quarantining universally. That has not been said before by some of the parties that are saying it now. That is fair enough; people can evolve in their positions. The numbers, however, are way down and will remain very low given the additional measures we introduced and announced yesterday and any further measures that will be required regarding the variants. There have been discussions between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Secretary of State in the UK but they are at a preliminary stage. I have had preliminary discussions with the British Prime Minister. North-South discussions between officials from the Executive and our Government have been conducted in a constructive way in terms of sharing of data and so on.

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