Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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39. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he has liaised with the Minister for Health to consider introducing restrictions or banning of travel from South American countries in light of the new Covid-19 variant identified in Brazil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3117/21]

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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55. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of persons that arrived into the airports here in December 2020, by country of departure; the number that completed a passenger locator form in December 2020 and received a follow-up by phone call; his views on whether stricter testing and quarantine restrictions are needed on all international arrivals at ports and airports here to try to prevent further importations of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2122/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 55 together.

Statistics on passengers arriving into Ireland through State Airports by country of departure are compiled on a weekly basis. To note also these are based on last leg of the journey and last point of Departure rather than where a passenger may have originated. Details on passengers would not be gathered by the State Airports.

Statistics on the countries of departure for passengers arriving into Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports from overseas destinations from the 30^thNovember 2020 – 3rd January 2021 inclusive are set out in the tables below.Transfer passengers are not included in the arrivals statistics for airports as Ireland is not the final destination for these passengers who do not leave the airport before travelling onwards. All statistics set out below are provisional figures provided by the airports and are subject to change:

My Department has no role in relation to the receipt of or follow-up actions relating to the passenger locator form. The Minister for Health is responsible for this matter.

The extent to which the public, including arriving passengers, are advised to either restrict movement, adhere to other public health measures or undertake Covid-19 testing is based on the advice of the public health authorities. My Department assists with the implementation of public health measures in relation to international travel, as decided by Government following relevant public health advice.

The Government continues to advise against non-essential international travel and that essential travel is undertaken with due regard to public health safety measures.

With effect from 16 January 2021, all passengers arriving into Ireland (unless exempt) are required to have a evidence of a negative or ‘not detected’ result from a pre-departure COVID-19 RT-PCR test that was carried out no more than 72 hours prior to arrival in Ireland.Passengers are asked to present evidence of their negative/‘not detected’ result before boarding their airplane and will be denied boarding if they cannot produce such evidence or do not claim to fall into an exempt category.

Passengers who arrive in an Irish airport or seaport without the required evidence , and who are not in an exempt category, commit an offence and may be subject to prosecution, punishable by a fine not exceeding €2,500 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both.

Exemptions included international transport workers such as hauliers, airline and maritime crew. It also includes children aged 6 and under.

In line with the EU Traffic Light system on arrival, passengers from ECDC red/grey locations and other locations are advised to restrict their movements for 14 days, but may release themselves from the advice to restrict their movements if they have a second negative result from a RT-PCR test taken no less than 5 days post arrival. This approach to post-arrival testing does not apply to travel from Great Britain, South Africa or South America who are advised to complete the entire 14 day period of self-isolation.

Arrivals from green and orange countries (as defined by the EU traffic light system) will not be required to restrict their movements on arrival but must adhere to the local public health guidance.

There are no direct flights to Ireland from South America.

The Government is keeping all measures relating to international travel under review.