Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this Bill is to provide for the mandatory hotel quarantining of inbound travellers from listed countries owing to Covid-19. We have all been calling for this measure for a long time but I am concerned about a couple of matters. I have been contacted by a number of host families who welcomed students from Spain and Germany in September. These students paid their fees, enrolled in our schools, took their PCR tests and quarantined. They did not go home to their families in December and now many of them, particularly transition year students, have been told they will not be able to return to in-person education until 12 April. If they travel home now, can they expect to return, take their tests and opt to quarantine or will they face a fine for their travel? What plans are in place to give notice of a change in country status?

Can these students now return home and be assured they can fly back, quarantine in their hosts' homes, present their negative tests and get back to school? Information is key here. These families and students want to do the right thing but they want information so they can make sure they do as required by NPHET and do everything by the book.

We need to significantly ramp up the public health teams to track and trace every case of Covid and stamp out rogue variants by ensuring we trace efficiently. It is important we have tracing. That is something all of us have been calling for. We have not had enough tracing at any point. We need to hire more tracers because we are not asking everyone to quarantine. I ask the Minister to address that point.

This Bill intends to provide for the mandatory quarantine of persons coming into the State who fail to comply with certain requirements relating to testing for the disease and coming from outside the risk countries. Since 16 January, all passengers arriving here must have a negative Covid-19 PCR taken within 72 hours prior to arrival. Children aged six years and under are exempt from this requirement. What will be the requirements for families with a child under the age of six? I understand evidence is emerging of a new variant of the virus that is more harmful to young children. Is it proposed to expose potentially healthy children to the virus because we do not test them or will we test every single traveller who we require to quarantine in a facility run by the State? These are questions that need to be asked.

Last week, the Government announced 37 vaccine centres throughout the country. While I welcome that announcement, there was a mistake regarding the Carlow centre, which was listed as the Seven Oaks Hotel. The hotel got word on the evening in question, however, that it was not to be the test centre and the Barrow Centre at Carlow Institute of Technology was to be the new test centre. I ask the Minister to consider designating the Seven Oaks Hotel as a second test centre for Carlow. It is in the town and well located. Carlow IT's Barrow Centre is also an excellent centre but it is a little outside the town. Will a bus be provided to bring people who do not have transport to the centre? I ask the Minister to consider that and to make the Seven Oaks Hotel a second vaccination centre for Carlow.

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