Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We agree on this: we have to reduce right down the volume of people travelling in and out of this country and to restrict and stop non-essential travel. That is what we are doing and what the Garda Síochána is doing. As I understand it, the Minister for Justice will have all the details in terms of those being fined at our airports for doing exactly that. The latter is a clear signal that this is not simply advisory. We are saying that there should not be any non-essential travel. Where people do come, I believe it is appropriate to set up the hotels under the legislation that just completed Second Stage. The legislation caters for those coming here from the designated countries to which the Deputy referred and makes provision for those travelling from other countries to quarantine at specific houses. That is the approach we are going to take.

In the case of people coming in without providing polymerase chain reaction, PCR, tests, gardaí are checking on them in their homes. This does not happen in every case because the Garda authorities have make decisions on how to use and deploy resources. A Garda spokesman confirmed last night that this is what is being done. I expect the Minister for Justice will also ensure that the resources are deployed. I believe it is appropriate to do what gardaí are doing. They are doing a really good job at Dublin Airport and elsewhere. Several thousand fines have been imposed on people who are not abiding by the guidance and rules that are in place.

The Deputy seemed to criticise us and indicate that we may adjust the rules depending on health advice, but it is health advice that we are following. We are following the best advice from the World Health Organization, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and our national health authorities. I heard Mike Ryan address a conference organised by the Royal Irish Academy some weeks ago. When asked whether we could simply stop everything in terms of travel and whether it would work, he said "No" and indicated that the focus should be on acting fast where variants of the virus are identified and scaling up the genome sequencing testing, which the Government has done. We are now meeting the European standard whereby 10% of all PCR cases tested are checked for genome sequencing. This follows World Health Organization and European advice. Similarly, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control set out its advice on the Monday before last and we are following that pretty much to the letter.

I am of the view that what I have outlined is appropriate. It is particularly appropriate in our circumstances because there are two jurisdictions on this island. That gives rise to certain considerations in terms of how we manage travel. I believe the approach we have taken whereby we are working with the UK Government is appropriate. We are taking this approach because we do not have a Northern Ireland counterpart with devolved powers in respect of travel. We are working in co-operation on the basis of a two-island strategy which allows us to minimise risk. The UK authorities are following a similar strategy to ourselves. It is not exactly the same, however. In that context, different health authorities will identify different countries or different risks. The two strategies are similar and have similar back-up rules in terms of fines and so on. I believe the approach being taken is appropriate as we roll out the vaccines.

One thing is absolutely clear, and I agree 100% with Deputy Doherty on it. The large amount of travel taking place for non-essential services has to stop. That is why gardaí are outside the airports issuing €500 fines. We have to police this and ensure that anyone who comes in without a PCR test is checked up on. This is done on the basis of random checks on people in their houses. It is one of the series of measures we need to put in place.

See this speech in context