Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 April 2021
369. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Health if a person who works on rotation of five weeks on an oil rig 200 miles off the coast of Brazil and five weeks at home will have to go into supervised quarantine each time they come home; if not, if they are considered a seafarer carrying out their employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18037/21]
View answerThe 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. The full list of exempted travellers is available on gov.ie/quarantine.
The provisions of the Act also allows for travellers to request a review of decisions relating to their quarantine. However this can only be undertaken once quarantine has begun.
The Act refers to a "...maritime master or maritime crew who arrives in the State in the course of performing his or her duties" as an exempted traveller. This provision would not therefore apply to person working on an oil rig, as they are not a seafarer nor are they arriving in the State in the course of performing their duties. Furthermore this provision applies only to maritime crew on-board ship serving Irish ports.
Neither I as Minister for Health nor my Department have any 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.
