Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Since I was elected to Dáil Éireann a little over a year ago, and certainly since the Government was formed, we have had to pass a raft of legislation that in ordinary times would be absolutely unthinkable because of their severity and draconian nature. Everybody in here accepts the necessity for the legislation that has been put in place, and mandatory hotel quarantine is part of this. The scepticism that we share about legislation is healthy and correct, and it is very much the job of the House to examine legislation in this regard. This legislation in particular contradicts one of the four central freedoms of our participation in the European Union, namely, the freedom of movement.

Of course, I will support the extension proposed in the motion but it is right and healthy we are having the debate and that we are examining it fully. With this in mind, we are proposing only a short extension and the facility remains to extend this further, and we must approach this legislation with this in mind. We should not just have a sunset clause but should consider how it is we will unwind the system of mandatory hotel quarantining. At what point will it become redundant? Are we looking at large-scale vaccination in the country or will we rely on external factors?

In this respect, we will have to examine how it interfaces with the digital green certificate. The likelihood is this will apply to the common travel area, the EU, the US and more developed parts of the world. I have a concern that if we look beyond our European borders and into the developing world, we will we find ourselves in a situation where the walls will begin to come up with regard to Covid. It is beginning to look increasingly the case that what we are looking at in terms of Covid is something that is endemic in the world population. Earlier, I stated I do not believe the COVAX mechanism goes far enough or that Gavi will answer all of the questions we need to answer with regard to global vaccination. If we are not looking at global elimination and if we are looking at a situation where variants of concern are free to develop in large congregated settings in the developing world, then are we looking at an issue whereby the walls will come up around the developed world and we will have free travel for those fortunate enough to be vaccinated but not for anybody left out in the cold?

I am looking beyond the July extension proposed. Do we see a way out of this? It is tangential to the debate but it does of course raise the question of vaccination in the global south and what we will do about it. I am firmly of the opinion that Ireland should use its voice more clearly in whatever international context we have available to us, be it the UN Security Council, the WTO or wherever. While I support the idea of a waiver on the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, but I do not believe it is the silver bullet. We have to look at mechanisms, and make the case on a global case for mechanisms that will help vaccine roll-out in the developing world. Otherwise I worry about where it will all end.

With regard to methodologies and how countries get onto the restricted list, another worry I have is the capacity of countries and how this will play out in practice. The example put to me is Belgium. It has an extremely advanced testing system and very good genomic sequencing. Because there is so much testing there, of course it identifies Covid and variants of concern and it gets onto the list. If we apply this to somewhere such as Lebanon, where we know Covid is rife, it does not have the capacity to provide the same amount of testing and certainly does not have the genomic testing capacity. We might know Covid is there but we might not know how much or what type. In this context, what methodology will we apply as we move forward to make sure the countries from where we are restricting travel are those we really should be watching out for?

I will move to a couple of more specific concerns. For the digital green certificate, or even for mandatory hotel quarantining at present, four vaccines have been approved by the European Medicines Agency. However, other vaccines exist and more will come on stream. I am specifically speaking about Sinopharm, which has been approved by the WHO but not by the EMA. To speak specifically about this, we know we have a large expatriate population living in the UAE, for example. I have come across a specific instance where someone had to travel to see a sick relative and had been vaccinated with Sinopharm but still had to enter the mandatory hotel quarantine system. I absolutely understand the rationale for this but I also have to acknowledge the personal and financial strain put on this person who had to travel, was extremely worried about an ill parent and had to stump up the money for mandatory hotel quarantine. We should be a little bit more proactive in how we look at the various vaccines.

Slightly tangential to this is how we apply rules to those vaccinated people coming in. If I understand it correctly, a person who is fully vaccinated with one of the approved vaccines can bypass mandatory hotel quarantine but will still be asked to restrict movement. We have an exemption for elite sports people. Cases that have come across my desk relate to the arts industry and people who would ordinarily arrive here for short windows of work, such as in the film industry or conductors who might arrive to do a short piece of work with an orchestra or choir. In such cases, restricting movement may not be realistic. Of course we want to limit the amount of non-essential travel happening but it is something we should look at in those specific sectors.

Deputy Nash asked for a detailed report on the success of mandatory hotel quarantining. There is a good case for this. Certainly if we consider extending it again I would like to be on a firm footing as to how successful it is. The Minister gave us some updates on the success we are seeing in the system. Certainly I support the idea of having a detailed report.

I echo Deputy Nash's comments on aviation and the need for support. I like the idea of the German-style Kurzarbeitscheme. In the long term and irrespective of Covid-19, it would be a very interesting concept to look at in the Irish context.

We know mandatory hotel quarantining is imperfect and we know it is undesirable. We also know that for the moment it continues to be necessary. For this reason, I will support the motion but I ask the Minister to continue to keep it under constant review, as I know he is. The sooner we can step away from the powers we have passed in the Parliament in response to an emergency situation, the better for the health and the sake of our entire democracy.

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