‘GREEN LIST’ FARCE
Holidaymakers must travel to high-risk Covid countries to reach ‘safe’ destinations
THE green list chaos was laid bare yesterday as it emerged holidaymakers will have to go through high-risk Covid countries to get to at least two destinations.
As the Taoiseach rejected opposition claims that travel plans have been handled in a ‘cack-handed’ way, it was revealed that one destination on the list, Monaco, doesn’t even have an airport.
Travellers will have to journey through at-risk France to get there.
Meanwhile, flights to Gibraltar will necessitate a layover in the UK, which is not on the green list, or else a flight to Malaga in Spain, also not on the ‘safe’ list.
And reaching San Marino, a tiny landlocked country surrounded by Italy, involves a long and arduous
train and bus journey. Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney added to the confusion yesterday when he said there was no need to restrict movements if you are making a connecting flight in countries not on the list.
He said: ‘If you actually leave the airport and then spend some time in a country, then that is the country that determines the risk status.’ The countries on the green list are Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco, and San Marino.
Mr Coveney acknowledged that the Government advice that nonessential travel should be avoided is still causing confusion.
‘I can accept that there has been some confusion in the last number of days and that’s why it was important that the Government made a definitive decision last night,’ he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
But travel operators and Ryanair hit out at the chaos, with the airline joking that holidaymakers would have to buy a yacht to get to Monaco. Paul Hackett, CEO of travel website Click&Go, told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘Who in their right minds thought that the likes of Gibraltar, San Marino and Greenland should be included on this list? If you go on to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ website and look at the countries included on the green list it says to take normal precautions when visiting them, yet on the same page it warns people not to travel to them for non-essential reasons.
‘It’s no wonder people are still scratching their heads about whether or not it’s safe to travel. I don’t think I’ve seen something as badly handled or miscommunicated in my life.’
Ryanair tweeted: ‘Four simple steps to your #GreenList getaway in Monaco: 1. Fly to France 2. Oh wait, turn around because France isn’t actually on the list 3. Buy a yacht 4. Sail to Monaco from Dublin.’
Later, in the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin insisted that the Government’s message not to travel abroad for a holiday was clear, but then said: ‘We don’t want people holidaying outside of these 15 countries.’
Last night, the Department of the Taoiseach refused to say if the inclusion of Monaco and of Gibraltar was a ‘mistake’, when asked by the Mail.
It is understood that they were selected purely on the epidemiological data with no consideration to how people would arrive in Ireland from there.
Labour transport spokesman Duncan Smith told the Mail: ‘The Taoiseach said the list was dataled, it certainly wasn’t commonsense led because of the inclusion of areas like Gibraltar and Monaco, the latter of which doesn’t even have an airport.
‘It just beggars belief that you would have to go through France and Spain, both of which are battling high levels of Covid-19 at the moment.
‘The publication of the green list was a strategic mistake that has caused confusion among the public and a bit of frustration and anger,’ he said.
Mr Martin rejected claims from Opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald that his administration’s handling of the travel issue had been ‘cack-handed’.
She said Irish people who faced having to cancel foreign holidays had been ‘thrown under the bus’ by the Government and left without support or compensation.
‘There is absolute public confusion and a lack of public confidence in your whole approach, which has been marked as cack-handed and, frankly, operating on a wing and a prayer,’ she said.
‘You have put yourself at odds with the public health advice, which is for no international travel,’ she added.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the Dáil the list meant people didn’t know if they were permitted to travel to the listed countries or not.
‘It is like arriving at a set of traffic lights where the green and red
‘I’ve never seen a thing so badly done’
lights are simultaneously illuminated. It is clearly not in line with the public health advice being issued by NPHET on foreign travel,’ he said.
There was confusion before the list was published when Tánaiste Leo Varadkar issued a statement on Tuesday casting doubt on publishing the list. He said he believed strongly that it was wrong to send out ‘mixed messages’. His statement said: ‘The Tánaiste believes there should be a green list as was previously agreed by Government. But if the travel advice for countries on the green list isn’t different to advice for other countries, then we would be better off not having a green list at all.’ Last night Mr Varadkar posted a video on Twitter saying the travel advice ‘might not be simple but it is clear’.
People arriving here – with some exceptions such as essential supply chain workers – are still required to fill in a passenger locator form and self-quarantine for 14 days. People crossing the border from the North are not subject to restrictions on their movements.
The Taoiseach has insisted that it would be impossible to try and enforce any mandatory quarantine programme and that the most important thing is how quickly the authorities can trace potential Covid-19 contacts.
He highlighted the importance of families with children self-quarantining on arrival from countries not on the list, warning that failure to do so could present a risk to school reopening plans.