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DUBLIN, July 13 (Reuters) - Ireland will consider
strengthening measures at airports to implement 14-day
quarantine restrictions on people travelling from abroad, its
tourism minister said on Monday, following criticism by
opposition politicians and tourism operators that visitors are
not complying.
Ireland introduced the voluntary rule in April, and from
late May required incoming travellers to provide the address
where they will self-isolate. It plans to move to an electronic
system capturing data from airlines and ferry operators shortly.
Restaurant, hotel and pub owners took to Twitter over the
weekend to say they turned away customers from the United States
after learning they had not self-isolated for 14 days. A tweet
from a tour guide saying she cancelled a booking for the same
reason went viral on Sunday.
"The cabinet will be discussing measures this week that may
be needed, such as strengthening measures at airports, ahead of
issuing a possible green list of countries," Tourism Minister
Catherine Martin told the Newstalk radio station.
"I think there's work to be done."
Ireland plans to publish on July 20 a "green list" of
countries whose residents will be exempt from the quarantine
rule but has said it will be limited to a small number and based
on the amount of new COVID-19 cases, the trend, and quality of
testing and tracing in qualifying countries.
With some 4,000 daily passengers arriving in Dublin airport
last week after 1,200 the previous week, the government also
plans to ramp up its call-back and symptom-checking services.
"It's a really dangerous situation because that system does
not distinguish between safe countries and countries like the
U.S.," Róisín Shortall, leader of the small Social Democrats
party, told Newstalk, referring to the operation of the
quarantine system.
This kind of loose arrangement, she said, was "putting all
our hard work at risk."
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
