Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill.

To begin, I must ask why the Minister for Transport is not here taking this Bill through the House. Where is the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, today? He should be anchoring this Bill but he is missing in action. I mean no disrespect to the Minister or the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, but their responsibility and focus should be entirely on the health system and the critical vaccination roll-out. It is wholly inappropriate that the hotel quarantine Bill was loaded on the Department of Health. It is clear the Bill was dumped on the Minister, which is absolutely not helpful. It was a selfish move by the Minister's Cabinet colleagues, who shirked their responsibility in this area.

While Sinn Féin welcomes the broad thrust of this Bill, and I thank the departmental officials for their briefing on Monday, it will come as no surprise to hear we do not believe this Bill goes far enough. NPHET set the bar on 14 January when it recommended "that every effort be made to ensure that discretion as it currently applies to the need for restriction of movements and PCR-testing post-arrival in Ireland is removed". The question is whether we can do more to limit discretion on restriction of movements and PCR testing post arrival. When we look at this Bill and the wider regime, the answer is absolutely clear. Yes, we can; yes, we should; and yes, we must.

Limiting the provisions of this Bill to arrivals from just 20 countries is wholly inadequate. One of our amendments seeks to extend mandatory hotel quarantine to arrivals from allcountries and the Minister should accept it. As the Bill has a three-month sunset clause, we believe mandatory hotel quarantine for all non-essential arrivals during this time is necessary, appropriate and proportionate. We need strong action now to prevent new variants being imported and to protect the vital vaccination programme over the coming months. I urge the Minister and his colleagues to reconsider and listen to the Opposition on this point. He should heed the public appetite for it. Too many mistakes have been made in the Government’s international travel policy, lessons need to be learned and now is the time to do it.

Central to the Government's argument against our proposals is that it wants to continue with the approach of reacting to variants or outbreaks in other countries as they arise. This does not work and will not work. The Government has stated, as if it were a badge of honour, that on first hearing of the British variant it imposed a travel ban the next day. What decisive action. While this is how the Government intends to carry on, did it work? It did not, not by a million miles, as 90% of all cases here are now from that exact variant.

The Minister knows that by the time variants are discovered in other countries, it is too late and the ship has sailed, both literally and figuratively. The Government's plan runs contrary to the fundamental principles of outbreak management and prevention. For 170 or 180-odd countries in the world, we will rely on mandatory quarantine at home. Let us just be straight with people. There is no such thing as mandatory quarantine at home. It is a misnomer and does not exist. It cannot be monitored or enforced. It is mandatory in name only and is quarantine in name only. It means nothing and as a result, this entire plan is wholly inadequate.

This is why the collective Opposition and the vast majority of people are asking for proactive measures in this regard. That is why nothing less than including all countries in this will work. We must take a cautious approach until the vaccination programme is more advanced and more information about variants is known. The Government acknowledges this and we must take measures that will help allow our population get back to some level of normal life. The best way to do that is to drive the virus down and to prevent it and new variants from reseeding. Closing the door to unchecked international travel for the time being should be one part of this plan. Sinn Féin’s amendments deliver that and I urge the Minister to reconsider his position.

Related to the need for more comprehensive mandatory hotel quarantine is the urgent need to expand the checks and balances currently in place. Number one must be the introduction of a mandatory PCR test post arrival for all non-essential travel. A pre-departure test within the previous 72 hours, as currently required, is not enough. The Minister knows this and the experts have told him. NPHET's modelling indicates that even the best-performing pre-departure Covid-19 tests will miss up to 40% of cases within that 72-hour period. We have submitted another amendment that would require a post-arrival test for all non-essential travellers, regardless of whether they are in hotel quarantine. The Minister should accept it.

Currently, people are arriving back into the State and possibly quarantining in their homes. They are mixing with family members or housemates and without testing post arrival, this has the potential to lead to significant numbers of clusters.

Post-arrival mandatory testing must be introduced. It is about closing the net and managing and minimising the risk. We have all heard about the Swiss cheese model and the layers of protection. Pre-departure testing will miss up to 40% of cases. When combined with a post-arrival test on day 5, it will miss up to 15% of cases, according to the submission of the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, to the Joint Committee on Transport and Communication Networks. It is true that 15% is much better than 40%. NPHET set the bar, and on the issue of post-arrival testing, the Minister has not even tied his laces.

It is a similar case with the practicalities of the proposed regime. Given the current state of affairs, it will happen in very limited circumstances and maybe none but technically, someone landing in Belfast and living in the South is expected to voluntarily present at a designated facility. The question arises as to what happens if one does not. There are fines and penalties, which is fair enough. However, to ensure that this measure is implementable and enforceable, passenger data must be shared in real time between Belfast and Dublin, in order that the authorities here know who should be presenting at a designated facility and can contact them if they do not. It makes sense and we have submitted an amendment in this regard. I ask the Minister to support it.

Finally, we must acknowledge the impact that all of this will have on the aviation sector. I was genuinely taken aback to hear the response of the Tánaiste in the House last week when I raised this matter with him. In a highly disingenuous way, he suggested that asking for mandatory hotel quarantine and advocating for support for the aviation sector was trying to have it both ways. That is absolute nonsense. Of course, we realise that extra measures will add further to the difficulties in the aviation and travel sectors but look at those industries now. Look at what the Government's policies have achieved. The summer of 2020 was lost and now we are being told that the summer of 2021 will be lost. If we do not get ahead of this virus, more months and jobs will be lost.

Government half-measures and this permanent purgatory will not do. The Government’s approach to aviation has been disgraceful. It has failed to support the sector and its workers. The level of State supports is a fraction of what is required. The Government has turned a blind eye to ghost flights leaving with people’s money. We are told that nothing can be done. It has turned a blind eye to loyal customers being given the runaround on refunds and vouchers and being gouged on rescheduling fees. It has turned a blind eye on loyal workers being denied their short-time work support and to Aer Lingus strategically moving its operations elsewhere. The Minister wrote to me this morning, stating that the privatisation of Aer Lingus is "a positive evolution for the company". That is absolutely incredible. It is completely outrageous for the Tánaiste to come into the Dáil and claim that this half-baked plan, which is in front of us today, is about protecting aviation. It is no wonder that aviation sector workers are at their wits' end.

The Government cannot continue to ignore the need for crucial protections for workers. Tailored supports must be introduced for workers in the aviation industry who are facing months more of uncertainty and possible further job losses. The Government is sitting on a quarter of a billion euro in the so-called connectivity fund. This must be used. Massive investment is needed to protect aviation. It should come with conditions, including the protection of workers, jobs, strategic connectivity, and delivery on climate change goals. The Government has the power to do this. The Minister should stop pretending that there is some happy balance to be struck somewhere between 20 and 200-odd countries. It is an insult to ordinary workers who are looking to the Minister and the Government for hope. Instead, they are being used as a political football.

This legislation is important. It has come very late but at a crucial juncture in our effort to get ahead of this virus. Sinn Féin has proposed a number of amendments. I ask the Minister to consider and adopt them.

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