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

I am very glad to be here to speak to Senators today on the impacts of Covid-19 on the transport sector. The Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, will follow later this afternoon with statements to the Seanad on the impacts of Covid-19 on the aviation sector. I will speak to the detail of Covid-19 impacts on other sectors of transport and will also update Members on plans to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine for international travellers from 20 designated countries.

Early this week the Government published the Covid-19 Resilience & Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead plan. The plan outlines a cautious and measured approach for managing Covid-19 over the coming year. For the moment, despite the significant progress that we as a country have made since January, daily case numbers and the number of hospital admissions due to Covid remain high. It is not currently possible to introduce any easing of restrictions, except for the phased and safe return of children to in-school education.

I sincerely hope that as we progress through March, we will see the continued reduction of daily case numbers and that all children will be able to return to in-school education by mid-April. This, however, is not guaranteed and it relies on the continued effort of all our citizens. I know this is extremely hard and a lot of people are at breaking point. If we can stick with the plan as advised by our public health experts and continue to make progress and increase the pace of vaccine roll-out, we can in the late spring and summer look forward to some relaxation of measures and be able to meet with our loved ones outdoors once again.

As Members are aware, Covid-19 has had significant impacts on the transport sector, many of which will be long-lasting in their effects. I will briefly take the opportunity to outline these and the steps we have taken to address them.

I will now set out the testing and mandatory hotel quarantine measures in the context of international travel. As an island, Ireland is heavily reliant in high-quality international connectivity. This Government, and the preceding one, have kept borders open throughout the pandemic to maintain critical supply lines and for essential travel. Since the pandemic began, travel to Ireland by air and sea for most of the past year has been at 95% below 2019 levels. There has been a huge and sustained negative impact on the maritime and aviation sectors. The Government has acted to balance the safety of our nation with the need to maintain our connectivity and supply chains, all in the context of our position on a shared island and our membership of the EU.

More recently, experience of new and more infectious variants of the virus have necessitated intensified safeguards to prevent importation and the spread of these variants of concern. The Government has mandated that any person travelling to Ireland must have taken and have proof of a negative polymerase chain reaction, PCR, test in advance of travel. Within a day of news emerging of the new variant circulating in the UK we banned flights from Great Britain to Ireland. We have stopped visa-free travel from South America. We also have put the quarantine requirement for passengers without an exemption on a mandatory, legal footing.

This week, the Government has introduced a Bill to provide for mandatory quarantine in hotels for travellers arriving in Ireland from certain designated states. These will be designated based on the assessed level of risk by public health experts, and this assessment will take into account the presence of new Covid variants of concern.

All travellers arriving in Ireland who have been in designated states within the previous 14 days will be required to quarantine. This includes anyone who enters Ireland via Northern Ireland. Any such travellers will have to book their quarantine in advance and present themselves directly at their quarantine facility following their entry to the State. Travellers will not be allowed to go anywhere else first.

The Government is determined to enact this legislation as quickly as possible. It was passed by the Dáil this week and will come to this House next week.

Restrictions on international travel will be kept under constant review to ensure travel does not become a weak link in our response as domestic transmission is brought under control. The Government will continue to balance the imposition of such restrictions, and their impact on morbidity and mortality associated with the disease, with protecting civil liberties.

I will now turn to the maritime sector. Over the past year, shipping and ports operations have responded strongly and nimbly to maintain continuity of supply chains of essential goods while mitigating the risk of virus transmission, ensuring both workers and passengers are transported as safely as possible. I am deeply appreciative of those efforts. The maritime sector is essential to the continued supply of goods, accounting as it does for 90% of Ireland's international trade in volume terms and I know this sector is facing challenges, not least of which is the significant decline in passenger numbers.

The haulage and freight industry has also played a huge role in keeping flows of goods moving into and out of the country during the pandemic while also adapting to the huge changes to our supply chains arising from Brexit. Challenges to the sector have also been compounded by the imposition of testing by some EU member states for international hauliers. A new French law came into force on 28 January requiring truck drivers arriving in France on direct ferries from Ireland to show a negative Covid PCR test result. My Department quickly established and funded the operation and supply of Covid tests for commercial drivers travelling to France. As of 23 February, 4,294 tests have been carried out. The numbers testing positive are very low, with only ten positive cases, representing 0.23% of the total tested. My Department is in regular engagement with the French Government and will continue to keep this situation under close review.

With regard to public transport, just as there has been a very significant drop in international travel passenger numbers to Ireland, impacting our maritime and aviation sectors, so too have we seen a similar downward trend on public transport passenger numbers.On public transport, passenger numbers are between 10% and 25% of 2019 levels for rail and bus services, respectively. Passenger volumes have remained stable during January 2021, with overall public transport demand at 22% of pre-Covid levels. However, there has been a slight increase in demand in recent weeks, with passenger numbers now close to 25% of pre-Covid levels. This drop in passenger numbers has inevitably had financial implications for the public transport sector as fare revenues have plummeted. As part of the 2021 Estimates process, my Department secured significantly higher than normal levels of funding of €670 million for public service obligation, PSO, and Local Link services. Most recently, Government approved an extension of the temporary supports for the commercial bus sector, which were first introduced last summer. These supports ensure that public transport services continue to be available to essential workers across the economy and for broader societal reasons.

Road safety services have also been impacted negatively and arrangements have been put in place to assist those affected. I do not have time in this opening statement to go through all of the measures in detail, but I am happy to come back to these in my closing remarks if Members would like more information. Suffice it to say, one of the areas I am most concerned about is the existing and growing backlog in driver testing services. This is necessitated by the reduction in non-essential activity across the economy, and at currently in level 5, driver tests are available only to those who are involved in essential services. Significant backlogs have resulted from this. I am in discussions with officials regarding how we can return to the normal target for the maximum waiting time, which is approximately ten weeks. It is important to recognise that there are no quick fixes and that the continuing build-up of applications mean that it will take some time to achieve this target.

On sustainable mobility, Professor Philip Nolan said last week that we should aim for an outdoor summer this year. My Department and the National Transport Authority, NTA, are taking steps to provide for additional space for walking and cycling. This includes a rethinking of our allocation of road space and ensuring we place the pedestrian and the cyclist at the centre of our thinking. This reallocation of space will contribute to delivery of the Government's roadmap for reopening society and business. It provides additional safe commuting capacity at a time public transport must run at low capacity for essential workers, who still need to travel to work. It improves our capacity to socially distance in urban centres and will support the gradual reopening of retail and commercial spaces.

While we can begin to look ahead to better days in the summer, I would like to state unequivocally that I am in no doubt about the scale and depth of the challenges ahead of us, which are like none faced in most of our lifetimes. They are felt in all sectors of our society, and not least in transport.