Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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114. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to a situation whereby under S.I. No. 183 of 2021 a person entering the State who is fully vaccinated but has not completed the mandatory wait time post-vaccination (details supplied) is required to complete the full two week mandatory hotel quarantine despite becoming fully vaccinated during this time period. [22382/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the case of a person (details supplied). [22383/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 114 and 115 together.

Mandatory hotel quarantine has been introduced as one element of Ireland’s public health measures to combat the transmission of COVID-19 variants of concern.

The Health Act 1947, as amended, provides that all persons arriving in Ireland from a designated state, or having travelled through a designated state in the previous 14 days, are required to undergo mandatory quarantine in a designated facility unless they are an exempted traveller under the Act. All applicable travellers must reserve and pay for a place in mandatory hotel quarantine. 

Mandatory hotel quarantine is also necessary in circumstances where passengers coming from non-designated states, do not provide evidence that they have a negative or ‘not detected’ result from a COVID-19 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test carried out no more than 72 hours before arrival into Ireland.

The Government continues to evaluate wider policy on international travel as informed by the epidemiological situation and public health advice.  

As of 17^thApril, passengers who are fully vaccinated and have the documents to confirm this are no longer required to complete mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival in Ireland. Dependents, including children, will also be exempted from the requirement to complete mandatory hotel quarantine in this instance.  

Please note that the 4 EMA approved vaccines currently accepted have specific definitions for when a person would be considered fully vaccinated. 

The following table sets out the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’;

Passengers who are fully vaccinated and exempt from hotel quarantine are still subject to other travel restrictions, such as the need to provide a negative pre-departure PCR test and complete a period of self-quarantine at home or wherever specified in their passenger locator form. 

Neither I as Minister for Health nor my Department have a role in decisions relating to whether individual persons must enter mandatory quarantine or whether individual persons are exempted travellers. All such decisions are to be determined in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

The Government continues to advise against all non-essential international travel.