Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will follow that up with the Minister for Health during the day. The point behind mandatory hotel quarantine, of which I am not a big fan, is that people are quarantined for ten to 14 days because they may be carrying a new variant of the virus. Unfortunately, while testing is very accurate, it is not 100%. That is the purpose of mandatory hotel quarantine and, for that reason, the definition of exempted travellers is narrow. It tends to be just people involved in, for example, being cabin crew, pilots or hauliers. However, it can be wider than that. People who have to travel abroad to seek medical treatment that is not available in the country, in my mind, fit into an appropriate category. I will raise it with the Minister and I am sure he will come back to the Deputy on it.

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