Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

577. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the communications that he has received from the ambassadors of other member states of the European Union concerning travel advice for Irish citizens and the proposed inclusion or exclusion of countries from the Covid-19 Green List published by his Department. [20381/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

On 21 July, the Government agreed a list of 15 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 15 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. 

In advance of the list being published, I received a letter from Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs for Luxembourg, outlining their large-scale testing strategy and epidemiological situation. In addition, a number of Embassies in Dublin, representing EU Member States, contacted officials in my Department about the list. They were informed about the criteria used to compile the list. Inclusion on the list is solely based on the current epidemiological situation and related public health information in each location. The Embassies in question were those of Croatia, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain.

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.