Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 April 2021
898. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Health if it is planned to vary the requirement for persons travelling to Ireland from the United Kingdom to quarantine in view of the low incidence of Covid-19 that exists in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21338/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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 designation of states will be subject to ongoing review in line with the provisions of Section 38B of the Health Act 1947, which was inserted by the Health (Amendment) Act 2021. 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.
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.
