Dáil debates

Thursday, 1 April 2021

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

 

12:40 pm

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Two days ago, public health officials requested that the USA, Germany and 41 other countries be added to the list for mandatory hotel quarantine. This is in order to prevent dangerous Covid variants from entering the country. We still have not heard if or when this is going to happen. Instead, we have the corporate lobbyists, IBEC, out pushing for this public health advice to be ignored because of its impact from a "business and investment reputational perspective". It seems those in IBEC believe the desire of billionaire chief executives to jet in and out without quarantining should outweigh the public health advice.

We know that quarantine works. Even with the tiny amount of quarantining now being implemented, we have found positive cases that otherwise would have come in. However, it should not be a measure that is limited to a small minority of travellers coming from Africa or South America. We need to stop all non-essential travel into the country and ensure proper quarantining for those who arrive.

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