The Minister for Health has insisted the advice on international travel has remained “absolutely steady” over recent weeks.
The Government has promised to publish a ‘green list’ of countries people can fly to without self-isolating by next week.
However, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned that he is “beyond nervous” about any increase in foreign travel – not that the pandemic is “accelerating” around the world.
Meanwhile, the number of flights at Dublin Airport doubled yesterday.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the public health advice on international travel has not changed.
“What the CMO has continuously expressed and reiterated again this week is a very serious concern about a second wave of COVID if there is a big increase in foreign travel,” he said.
“The public health advice has remained absolutely steady on this and all he did this week was reiterate that. The current advice is against all non-essential overseas travel.
“The reason he was reiterating it this week is because the situation has become more volatile internationally. We now have 10 million cases globally and over one million of them have happened just in the last week.”
Earlier on the show, the Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall called for people arriving into Ireland from COVID-19 hotspots to be forced to quarantine in hotels or government facilities.
Minister Donnelly said he does not expect that to be necessary.
“My sense is that to date we have done incredibly well as a country following the advice of public health officials,” he said.
“We have been steered very well and by and large it has not required legal enforcement.
“People understand how serious it is. People understand that we need to reopen the economy, we need to get the schools open, we need to get the healthcare facilities back up and running.
“So, in the first instance, I don’t believe that would be necessary and I don’t believe that would be likely. People have done an incredible job in working together on this.”
He said he will be meeting Dr Holohan after today’s meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), with Cabinet to discuss the latest travel recommendations on Monday.
You can listen back to the full interview here:
