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

I think the Deputy needs to define what she means by "non-essential travel". At Christmas time, she said that people who were coming home to meet their parents was essential travel. She needs to come clean with the people in terms of what she is actually saying about this.

We are bringing in mandatory hotel quarantine. Countries will be added to the list by Government, as recommended by public health, in addition to the 33 countries that are on the schedule 2 list. That is in addition to a range of other measures we have taken, including the obligation to have a negative PCR test, mandatory home quarantine, which has been a legal imperative for the past number of weeks, non-essential travel incurring fines, police checks at the airports and so on.

Vaccination is the key factor in dealing with the virus, and, to date, more than 700,000 doses have been administered in the country. We are looking forward to higher supplies in April, May and June.

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