Confusion as minister tells public: Cancel your holidays
HEALTH Minister Stephen Donnelly has urged the public to ‘cancel their holidays’ as the Government’s travel strategy comes under fire.
A ‘green list’ of countries that are safe to travel to and from without quarantining is set to be announced on Monday, while the Government continues to advise against nonessential travel.
This comes as the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) reports that the crucial R number of the virus has gone above one to between 1.2 and 1.8. The R rate is the average number of people infected by a coronavirus carrier.
Minister Donnelly told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1: ‘If it is 1.8, NPHET believe that in about three weeks we could be up to about 150 to 160 cases per day, which is obviously a completely different place that we don’t want to be in.’
Three Opposition parties – Labour, Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats – have hit out at the Government for ‘incoherent’ and ‘contradictory’ messages on inward and outward foreign travel.
Minister Donnelly also told Newstalk
that he ‘hopes’ there is not ‘mixed messaging’ around the Government’s position on travel, saying: ‘I hope not, and if there is mixed messaging then we need to be very clear because we are asking people to make a huge sacrifice.
‘We are asking people to cancel holidays that they might have saved up all year for. We are asking parents to sit down with their kids – who have all been through this lockdown together – and say we are really sorry but we are going to have to cancel the holiday.
‘The reality is, some people will not be able to afford to holiday in Ireland. It is definitely incumbent on us to ensure there is clarity.’
Mr Donnelly said there will be a Cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss and agree on the announcement that aims to clear up the confusion on travel advice.
He said: ‘There is going to be a very comprehensive announcement on Monday, where a lot of the detail will be gone through. The Cabinet, I believe, is meeting this Sunday to agree it. There will be a green list announced. It will be of countries where the chance of getting the coronavirus is the same as it is here, but NPHET still advises against foreign travel because the “less movement, the better”, in their eyes.’
Sinn Féin’s spokesman on transport, Darren O’Rourke, criticised the Government’s travel strategy as ‘contradictory and confused’.
He said: ‘The suggestion that a green list will be published on July 20, but advice against all non-essential foreign travel will remain in place, makes absolutely no sense.
‘This approach will only serve to extend the contradictory and confused messages that people have had to live with for the last two months. It is completely unacceptable.’
Róisín Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said: ‘There has been considerable confusion among the travelling public about the Government’s mixed messages on quarantining. Given the public’s concern about the importation of the virus, we need to hear urgently from the Government with clarification on what exactly the current regulations are, and furthermore how they intend to strengthen the regulations in order to limit the risk posed by those people travelling from countries that have high incidences of the virus or are not on the promised green list.’
Labour’s spokesman on transport, Duncan Smith, questioned why the Government is preparing a green list and not a red list.
He said: ‘My issue with a green list is that if you have a green list, there’s implicitly a red list, and it’s how do you deal with the red list?’
‘Asking people to make huge sacrifice’