Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 April 2021
913. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Health if a person returning from a country on the red list who is returning to care for a critically ill relative can be allowed complete their quarantine other than in a mandatory hotel. [21383/21]
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. All applicable travellers must reserve and pay for a place in mandatory hotel quarantine.
The list of designated states will be reviewed in line with the advice provided by the Expert Advisory Group on Travel (EAGT) to the Chief Medical Officer. The Chief Medical Officer considers EAGT recommendations and in turn makes recommendations to me when considering the designation of individual states. A full list of designated states can be accessed on gov.ie/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.
A person in quarantine is entitled to apply for review of their quarantine. This process can commence once the passengers are in the designated mandatory quarantine facility and only for the limited reasons set out in the relevant legislation. One of the permissible grounds for appeal is ‘for medical or other exceptional reasons, including the necessity of providing care for any vulnerable person’. Requests for review are submitted to the State Liaison Officer present in each designated facility and are considered by independent appeals officers. Decisions on requests for review are provided within a 24-hour period. The State Liaison Officer (Irish Defence Forces) in the hotel provides passengers with information on how to apply.
The Government continues to evaluate wider policy on international travel as informed by the epidemiological situation and public health advice. In this context, regulations have been introduced to allow fully vaccinated persons arriving from designated states to be exempt from Mandatory Hotel Quarantine.
However, this only applies to persons who are ‘fully vaccinated’ with an EMA-approved vaccine and there will be a requirement to quarantine at home following arrival into the State. Passengers who are fully vaccinated are also required to provide a negative pre-departure RT-PCR test taken in the 72 hours pre-departure and to complete a period of self-quarantine at home or wherever specified in their passenger locator form.
The following table sets out the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’;
|
Type of Vaccine |
You are regarded as fully vaccinated after |
|
Pfizer-BioNtech |
7 days after 2nd dose |
|
Moderna |
14 days after 2nd dose |
|
Oxford-AstraZeneca |
15 days after 2nd dose |
|
Johnson & Johnson/Janssen |
14 days after single dose
|
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.
