Government should pay for returning Erasmus students’ €1,850 hotel quarantine, MEP says

The Government should cover the €1,850 cost of mandatory hotel quarantine for Erasmus students returning to Ireland, an MEP has said.

Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher commented on the matter following the Government’s decision last night to add several EU countries to the “high-risk” Covid-19 list.

Yesterday it was decided Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg would be added to the list later this month, along with other non-EU countries including Canada and the US, with Austria having already been included in the list weeks ago.

“If the medical advice is that they should spend time in mandatory quarantine, then it is very hard to argue with this change,” the MEP said. “However, what does need discussion is the significant financial cost quarantining in a hotel students and their families will have to incur.’

He said his party's youth wing had brought to his attention that the new countries on the list were popular with Irish third-level students on exchange programmes.

“Ógra has suggested that the students’ sending institution, ie their IT or university, should pay the hotel bill up front, and then receive a refund from the Department of Higher Education. There is, I believe, significant merit in their proposal and it warrants discussion at government level,” he said.

According to Mr Kelleher, there are only around 850 Irish students currently studying abroad on Erasmus - many of which would not be required to quarantine upon their return.

As such, he argued that “the cost to the State would be negligible”.

“Erasmus students went abroad last September, supported by their educational institutions, and in many situations, funded by the Irish State, in good faith,” he said.

The majority of countries currently on the “high-risk” list are in Africa and South America, which the Government argues is to prevent the spread of Covid-19 variants from those areas.

Speaking yesterday after the announcement of more countries, including the US, being added to the list, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said: “Protecting public health as a matter of urgency has been to the fore of these decisions around mandatory quarantine.”

“These variants pose a significant risk to our fight against this disease and our vaccination programme. This decision also reinforces Ireland’s biosecurity, ensuring we have the strongest measures in place in Europe.”

Current regulations require people arriving from “high risk” countries to quarantine in a hotel for a minimum of 10 days, after which they can be freed with a negative Covid-19 test result.

However, those who arrive from a country not on the list are permitted to quarantine at home, and can free themselves after five days if they have a negative Covid-19 test result.

Amid tension between Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, government officials are also exploring whether the mandatory hotel quarantine period could be brought down to five days from 14 for people who receive a negative Covid test.

There have also been calls for to let people who have been fully vaccinated to bypass the system entirely - even if they are coming from a high risk country.

Irish Independent