Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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117. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans for a colour coded common travel agreement within the EU in relation to foreign travel during Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31781/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU adopted a new coordinated approach to travel measures at the meeting of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 13 October 2020. As already set out in the Living with COVID-19 Framework, the Government supports this effort to improve coordination within the Union and has made clear our intention to align with the new Recommendation.

The new system categorises regions across Europe by their levels of COVID-19 risk based on a three-strand approach. This approach examines firstly, the 14-day cumulative incidence rate within the region, secondly, the overall level of testing in the region and finally, the testing positivity rate within the region. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) will make a weekly assessment and issue advisory maps of which regions within the EU/EEA are green, orange or red, or, if data is unavailable, grey.

Under the Recommendation, Member States are required to lift restrictions applying to green regions within seven days of adoption of the Recommendation. It is for Member States to determine what restrictions should apply for incoming visitors from the areas that are not classified as green.

In accordance with the Recommendation, persons arriving from green zones will continue not to be subject to any restrictions upon arrival in Ireland. In view of the current epidemiological situation, those arriving from orange and red zones will continue to be required to restrict their movements for fourteen days upon arrival, as will those arriving from grey regions. However, those coming from orange regions may waive the requirement to restrict their movements if they can produce a negative test result of an appropriate pre-departure test. Details of what constitutes an appropriate pre-departure test still remain to be determined. This change, however, will not take effect before 8 November 2020. 

Work will also continue in the coming weeks to amend the Passenger Locator Form so as to allow persons arriving into Ireland to avail of a series of exemptions from the requirement to quarantine provided for in the EU Council Recommendation.

The Government has also decided that changes for green regions should come into place from midnight Wednesday 21st October, with further changes to include the list of exemptions and changes to the requirements for arrivals from orange regions to be effective from midnight Sunday 8th November.