Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1501. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons who arrived into Ireland without proof of a negative Covid-19 PCR test in January, February and to date in March 2021; the number of sanctions imposed for these breaches; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14449/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In accordance with S.I. 44/2021 and S.I. 45/2021, travellers arriving into Ireland from overseas are required to complete a COVID-19 Passenger Locator Form, to present evidence of a negative pre-departure RT-PCR test taken within 72 hours of arrival and to observe mandatory quarantine.

Checks of evidence of a negative/not detected RT- PCR Covid-19 test on all arriving passengers into the State are carried out by Immigration Officials of the Border Management Unit and An Garda Síochána at ports of entry to the State. All cases where a test result is not available, or where the authenticity of the test result documentation is queried, are referred for further investigation to An Garda Síochána who have a presence at all approved ports of entry to the State.

The Department of Justice has reported high rates of compliance with the requirement to present proof of a negative / non-detected RT-PCR test result at points of entry to Ireland.

Passengers who arrive in an Irish port or airport without evidence of a negative/not detected test result or with a confirmed fraudulent test result will commit an offence and may be subject to prosecution, punishable by a fine not exceeding €2,500 and/or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both. In such cases An Garda Síochána will prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Health (Amendment) Act 2021 enacted on 7th March will require travellers arriving without a ‘non-detected’ PCR test result in the previous 72 hours, as currently required, to enter quarantine until a not-detected test result is returned.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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1502. To ask the Minister for Health the number of arrivals from each category 2 state as listed under regulation 6 of the Health Act 1947 in February and to date in March 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14450/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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All passengers arriving to the State are required to complete a COVID-19 Passenger Locator Form (PLF) in accordance with SI 45/2021. There are limited exemptions from this requirement, as set out in the regulations, such as for international transport workers or for diplomats. The Passenger Locator Form is used to support a system of engagements with arriving passengers including the targeting of public health messaging by SMS and may be used for contact tracing.

It should be noted that PLF data does not constitute formal arrival data into the country, due to the different intended purpose for the system and also the number of exempted persons as set out above. In addition, some passengers may complete a PLF in advance but be unable to travel as intended, and the data below may include some duplicates for certain travellers. Passengers may have completed a PLF and continued their journey without staying overnight in the State or having transiting onto Northern Ireland.

The data below is an indicative number of passengers whose journey originated in a Category 2 state as well as those passengers that listed a Category 2 state in their recent travel history from 8^thFebruary to 14 March.  A total of 33 states are designated by the Minister.

Numbers provided are for countries where a minimum number of 10 arrived from a Category 2 country, as providing any smaller numbers could risk identifying individual passengers. Where a passenger has declared that they have travelled in a number of Category 2 countries prior to arriving into Ireland, the most recent country is reported. Passengers will only appear once on this report.

63,987 Passenger Locator Forms were completed 8th Feb – 14^thMarch from all countries of departure for relevant travellers.

8% of the Passenger Locator Forms indicated a category 2 country during this period.

Number of accompanying children U16 are declared on the PLF, further information is not recorded on these passengers.

The figures below are subject to change due to ongoing data cleansing e.g. duplication where passengers completed the ePLF twice.

*Other countries -

Angola, Botswana, Bolivia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Colombia, Chile, DR Congo,  Ecuador, Eswatini,  French Guiana, Guyana, Lesotho,  Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,  Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Rwanda, Suriname, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela,  Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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1503. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the largest circulated newspapers that are delivered free to homes in areas (details supplied) are not receiving Government advertising in the form of Covid-19 public health advertising. [14455/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.