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LAST UPDATE | 7 Mar 2021
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has signed into law the legislation to bring in mandatory quarantine in a designated facility for certain passengers entering the country.
The Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 was brought forward to the Dáil by the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly last month.
It was passed in both the Dáil and the Seanad and has now been signed into law by the president.
The Bill provides for a system of mandatory quarantine at designated facilities.
People arriving into Ireland from certain countries will have to stay at designated hotels for up to 14 days.
Having considered the Health (Amendment) Bill 2021 the President has signed the Bill and it has accordingly become law.
— President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) March 7, 2021
Welcoming the news today, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the operationalisation of the quarantine facilities “is being advanced on a cross-departmental basis as a matter of priority”.
The Department of Health is leading the implementation process, supported by a number of Departments and agencies including Foreign Affairs, Transport, Justice, Public Expenditure and Reform, Children, the Defence Forces, as well as via input from the private sector.
“The next step in this process is to finalise and sign a contract with a service provider. I anticipate this will happen shortly”, said Minister Donnelly.
The government is continuing to advise against all non-essential international travel and a range of statutory measures are in place to reinforce this policy.
Passengers travelling to Ireland from certain designated states must complete a full 14-day quarantine period.
This applies to all passengers from designated states, regardless of nationality and the aim of this measure is to protect the population from challenges posed by new variants of concern. A list of designated states is available here.
A National Oversight Group for Variants of Concern has been established to monitor and address the challenges posed by VOC.
The group provides advice to the Chief Medical Officer, who in turn advises the Minister for Health on countries to be specified as designated states.
The list of designated states is subject to continuing review.
With reporting by Orla Dwyer
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The what’s in it for me party
I think that’s called Fine Gael or is it Finns Fail
Think I’d give my first preference to the sex party and my second to the hemp party. Glad to see they’ve formed a coalition. They need to get the Rock n Roll party involved and they could really shake things up
Mandatory voting?! What a terrible idea forcing the uniterested and uninformed to cast a vote
There was no problem getting the uninformed to vote in the UK last week
its a shame they didn’t have it in the uk last week, it might have changed things. nothing wrong with making it compulsary tweety, it gets people to think about what they are voting for. not like last weeks nonsense..immigrant this and that. what absolute waffle.
Uninterested and uninformed is just another way of saying lazy ***** who couldnt be arsed voting. I’m all in favour of mandatory voting if it means those that arent bothered voting get fined.
Compulsory voting just means people will turn up and spoil their votes. #dumbaussies
Compulsory voting means uninformed people get to vote, often parroting what the tabloid media is crapping on about. It also means issues can be made up/ overstated to garner votes – for example Tony Abbotts ‘stop the boats’ bullshite and off shore processing for refugees ( far more refugees in Australia arrive in planes than boats, but you can’t make as big a noise about that).
The tabloid media has far too much power because of compulsory voting, and that means Murdoch and Packer pretty much control the country
Cool I’ll go for Brexit
that flux party voting app thing could be the future. one of the great problems is that when we elect our politicians they then have a five year mandate with free reign to do what ever the hell they want. this app would really give people an ongoing say in massive decisions (eg burining unsecured bondholders) that are currently out of our hands.
I couldn’t see any of our political mob as Sex Party material! Now the Flux Party sounds sorta familiar alright!
Joan burton
Boris was rumoured to be running for the sex party, but he pulled out too early.
They should join forces and call themselves ‘The All Night Party’.
have your say