Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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42. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the reason for creating a green list for travelling during Covid-19 in view of the fact the clear advice from the NPHET is to discourage all foreign travel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18569/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On 21 July, the Government agreed a list of fifteen locations for which the advice against non-essential  travel no longer applies. The travel advice for those locations now is to 'take normal precautions,' which is represented by a green bar under the system of country security ratings used by the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

The fifteen locations whose security status was changed to 'normal precautions'/ ("green") are: Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Monaco, San Marino and Slovakia.

The criteria for inclusion on the list are based on the current epidemiological situation and related public health information in each location. As I said earlier, the European territories in question had, over the previous 14 days, a similar or lower caseload of COVID-19 per 100,000 people than Ireland as reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 

The list and related travel advice will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis, based on advice from officials including public health experts. Any updates or changes to travel advice will be made in line with Government decisions.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, with more than 16 million people infected. The situation is developing rapidly and the government's message is clear that the safest option is to stay in Ireland.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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43. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of the green list; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18465/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On 21 July, the Government agreed a list of fifteen locations for which the advice against non-essential  travel no longer applies. The travel advice for those locations now is to 'take normal precautions,' which is represented by a green bar under the system of country security ratings used by the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

The fifteen locations are: Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Monaco, San Marino and Slovakia.

Persons arriving into Ireland from those locations will not have to restrict their movements on arrival. However, they will still be obliged to complete a mandatory Public Health Passenger Locator Form and to submit it to the relevant authority at their port of entry. 

Inclusion on the list is based on the current epidemiological situation and related public health information in each location. The list and related travel advice will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis, based on advice from officials including public health experts. Any updates or changes will be made in line with Government decisions.

We are in the midst of a global pandemic, with more than 16 million people infected. The situation is developing rapidly and the government's message is clear that the safest option is to stay in Ireland.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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44. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of Irish citizens abroad that require repatriation assistance; the number of citizens that have been helped already; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18546/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that, with unprecedented numbers of people stranded across the world as a result of COVID19, my Department developed a comprehensive approach to repatriation of citizens who wished to return home, taking account of the best interests of our citizens, including from a public health perspective.  Priority has been given to helping citizens who are normally resident in Ireland to return home safely on commercial flights wherever possible and, where not possible, on flights chartered by EU and other partners.  In exceptional cases, where these options were no longer available, the Department has chartered flights directly to bring citizens home, notably from Peru, India and Nigeria. These flights, which were arranged in close cooperation with EU partners and facilitated travel of citizens from other EU Member States, were supported through the EU “Union Civil Protection Mechanism” - the first time Ireland has arranged flights using this method. 

I can confirm that, to date, my Department has advised or assisted over 8,000 people to return safely to Ireland as part of this consular response.

There are strong indications from our Missions abroad that, to a very large extent, the vast majority of citizens who wished to travel home in the context of the crisis have, with a number of exceptions, already returned, many with the assistance of Embassies.

The global situation continues to evolve quickly and there are therefore challenges in quantifying those who may still wish to return home. For example, while many Governments are now easing travel restrictions, others are maintaining or indeed re-imposing restrictions on travel. Furthermore there continues to be great unpredictability in relation to flight routes across the world - some flight routes are opening up again while restrictions and route cancellations are also happening on a daily basis worldwide. Our Embassies report that many callers are making contact in hope of verifying the existence of commercial options. Local economic and employment prospects also remain uncertain and this is of course an important factor for many of our citizens abroad. 

In that context our Embassies are maintaining regular contact with our citizens in need of assistance abroad and there remain over 800 Irish citizens globally who have expressed an interest in my Department’s assistance with returning to Ireland. However numbers may fluctuate in what is still an evolving situation.