Fresh pressure on Government as European Commission outlines ‘concern’ at hotel quarantine rules

The Government faces new pressure from Brussels to amend or possibly scrap mandatory hotel quarantine for EU citizens.

The European Commission has now written formally to the Government, seeking “clarification” of why rigid rules should apply to some member states and not others.

The Government, which yesterday dismissed earlier queries from Brussels as standard cross-checks, had no immediate comment on receipt of the letter — which says the Government should use “less restrictive” isolation protocols.

The quarantine controls apply to arrivals from five EU member states — Austria, France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg — but not to some others that have a higher incidence rate.

The EU recommends that there should be clear exemptions for essential travel to Ireland.

It wants clarification of the measures used by Ireland, and has openly suggested that this country move away from mandatory hotel quarantine for citizens of member states.

Speaking at the Commission building in Brussels, spokesman Christian Wigand said it had “concerns regarding this measure”.

He referred the general principles of EU law, with freedom of movement one of the four freedoms that form the bedrock of he union.

But he also referred in particular to proportionality in policy-making and non-discrimination against member states and members of their populations.

“We have been in contact with the Irish authorities during the past days on this matter. Today the Commission sent a letter to the Irish authorities asking for clarifications on this matter and on the criteria used to determine the designated countries,” the spokesman said.

The public comments may be seen as a rebuke to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who said he had no apology to make to the Italian Ambassador, the EU Commission or anybody else for seeking to safeguard public health in Ireland.

But Mr Wigand said: “The Commission believes that the objective pursued by Ireland, which is the protection of public health during the pandemic, could be achieved by less restrictive measures.”

He pointed out that the EU council of health ministers had issued guidelines for member states to follow during the pandemic, with an obligation to provide clear exemptions for essential travel.

“We invite the Irish authorities to align more closely their measures taken with the provisions of the council recommendation.” he said, referring to guidelines agreed last October and reaffirmed in February — a decision in which Mr Donnelly had input as Irish Minister for Health.

A Government spokesman said the EU was not raising any new issues other than were flagged last night. It was the same matter, he said.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee insisted however that Ireland’s laws on mandatory hotel quarantine were “evolving” and it was “not a long-term strategy.”

Speaking on the News at One on RTÉ Radio, she said in response to the EU’s institution of “pre-infringement process” that the reason for mandatory hotel quarantine was to protect public health.

“It’s to prevent a large number of incoming Covid cases and also to stop new variants from coming into this country and potentially undoing so much of the work that has been done,” she said.

The Government fully realised the seriousness of “legally asking people to stay in hotels for up to two weeks as they come into this country,” she said.

“But we are confident in the legal advice that we’ve received, that this is proportionate and that this is reasonable.”

The EU had asked Ireland to outline the criteria as to “why or how do we select a country that is included on this,” she said, and the answer was that they are “not just randomly selected,” the Minister said.

“We have an expert advisory group on travel, which was established in March, and they have developed a method of assessing risk. They’ll take into account countries where you have high rates of Covid-19, and they look for things of concern such as emerging variants.”

Some of the countries listed had a 14-day incidence rate that is two and a half times higher than Ireland, she said.

In France, for example, “we've seen a particular increase in the variant of concern from South Africa,” which had been noted by the Government’s advisory group, she said.

Its recommendations were then considered by the Chief Medical Officer or Deputy CMO, who in turn makes recommendations to the Minister for Health, she said.

“The Commission has asked us to respond to them, and we will of course engage as we have always engaged. And we have continued to engage with individual member states.”

She admitted that the criteria “is quite strict in terms of who is an essential worker who does not have to go into quarantine,” she admitted.

“This is not a long term solution. Mandatory hotel quarantine is not a long term solution. We are working towards our exit strategy, even though we've only just introduced this.”

The exit would be through any new digital pass or the green cert which is being worked through with at EU level, she said. “My own department is working on regulations for people who are fully vaccinated, if they come into the country, that they don't have to go into hotel quarantine.

“So the system is constantly evolving, and I don't think anybody would say that it doesn't have to evolve and shouldn't evolve as examples and situations would arise.”

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