Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The fact that travellers must have a negative PCR test result, no matter where they are coming from, probably answers Senator Burke's question.

On the amendment, I have great regard for my colleague, Senator Bacik, but with the greatest respect, I think the amendment is completely over the top. It is correct that the UK has mandatory quarantine measures in place. However, we are a member state of the EU. From the onset of the pandemic to date, the EU has handled the situation much better than the UK. As a matter of fact, Ireland has handled it much better than most European countries, if not all of them. Why would we mandatorily quarantine a person coming from a country that is Covid-free? That does not make sense at all. There must be proportionality about this. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, this is the most stringent quarantining legislation in Europe.

I listened to Deputy Kelly speaking before Christmas. He wanted everything to remain as it was prior to Christmas until 6 January 2021. Therefore, it is a good job that the Government decided to close everything down on Christmas Eve and did not follow the advice of Deputy Kelly to keep everything open until 6 January. This is an evolving situation, but amendments such as that tabled by the Labour Party are completely and totally over the top. With respect, there is more headline generating going on now than dealing with the problem and the challenges that we face. By and large, the Labour Party put down very reasoned amendments in this House over many years, but I do not know how it can stand over this one. It is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.