Tifco Hotel Group to operate State’s mandatory quarantine for travellers arriving into Ireland

The Tifco Hotel Group will operate the State’s mandatory quarantine regime for passengers arriving in this country under an agreement which will be announced this week.

The group has earmarked the Holiday Inn Express and the Crowne Plaza Hotel near Dublin Airport to be among the initial quarantine hotels.

Four hotels will be used when the quarantining system is first introduced but the group has committed surge capacity in their other hotels. How many hotels are used will depend on demand.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly will announce the deal with the Tifco Group in the coming days.

Three days after the announcement the system will be formally in place and passengers arriving from 33 countries deemed to be high risk for Covid-19 will have to quarantine in one of the hotels.

Passengers arriving from these countries will be required to book rooms in quarantine hotels in advance of their journeys. It will cost just under €2,000 per adult and around €500 for any child over three-years-old.

Passengers who flout new mandatory hotel quarantine laws could face a €4,000 fine and a month in prison for a first offence. A second offence can be punished by a fine not exceeding €4,500 and/or three months in prison while a third offence comes with a possible €5,000 fine and or six months in prison .

Mandatory hotel quarantining will apply to passengers arriving from South Africa, Brazil, Angola, Austria, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

It will also apply to those coming from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Online Editors