Martin: We’re not ready to lift quarantine on UK travellers
THE Taoiseach has said it is too early for people travelling from Britain to come here without being quarantined.
Micheál Martin referred to the secondary lockdown in Leicester as an example of why Ireland has to be cautious.
He said the advice from the Government is to avoid any non-essential travel as they press for schools to reopen next month.
The Cabinet will discuss international travel this week, including whether to strengthen resources at airports.
‘We would be very cautious on international travel generally,’ he said.
‘On July 20 we will announce our measures in relation to international travel and essentially we have developed a methodology... in relation to the level of the disease in particular countries, including the UK, countries that are at Ireland’s level or below,’ he said.
‘In terms of people coming in to Ireland, the advice on quarantining still remains and it’s under constant review. Why? Because there’s a lot of international volatility with this virus, we’ve seen a spike in numbers. We’re very concerned about that.’
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Martin emphasised that his Government wants to take a cautious approach. ‘The suppression of the virus is key. We’ve watched reports where, in certain parts of the UK, there are still difficulties where certain areas had to go into lockdown and so on, and further severe restrictions,’ he said.
On June 30, Leicester became the first city in England to have tighter restrictions reimposed, after an increase in Covid-19 infections. Last Tuesday, the British health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the Commons that the seven-day infection rate had been reduced in the city from 135 to 117 per 100,000 since the lockdown was introduced. This is still almost eight times the rate of the next highest city – Barnsley – at 17 cases per 100,000, according figures from the UK’s National Health Service.
On Saturday, Belgium placed the city on its ‘red zone’ list of coronavirus hotspots its citizens should avoid.
Mr Martin said they were doing ‘everything we possibly can’ to avoid a second spike of the virus here, where the reproductive rate of Covid-19 was found to have increased to one last week. ‘Clearly the agenda for Government is very much dominated by the continued prevalence of the virus and we’re watching very carefully what is happening across Europe in terms of spikes and in terms of experiences of other member states who have opened up earlier than we have,’ Mr Martin said.
On his relationship with British prime minister Boris Johnson, he said he was ‘very heartened’ by a recent discussion with him ‘in terms of trying to reset the British-Irish relationship post-Brexit, which I think the prime minister is very keen on doing’.
Mr Martin also ruled out a border poll as ‘far too divisive at this stage’.
He said he instead wants to focus on building relationships to share the island of Ireland ‘in peace and harmony’.
‘I want to inject greater momentum into the north-south dimension of the Good Friday Agreement, in terms of practical, pragmatic economic projects and activity that we can get under way,’ he said.
‘I think, to me, a border poll is far too divisive at this stage, it doesn’t deal with the more fundamental issue of how we continue to live and work together as we all live on this island,’ he said.
‘We would be cautious of international travel’