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LAST UPDATE | 23 Mar 2021
THE BOOKING PORTAL for mandatory hotel quarantine in Ireland is now live.
The portal is available to access here (desktop and iOS users) or by copying and pasting https://quarantinehotelsireland.ie into your browser if you’re on an Android phone. More information about mandatory quarantine can be found here.
All passengers arriving into Ireland from designated States after 4am this Friday, 26 March are now required to pre-book accommodation in a designated quarantine facility, and to pre-pay for their stay.
There are currently 33 countries on the government’s list of ‘high-risk’ countries.
On 26 February, Minister Donnelly designated an additional 13 countries and territories as “Category 2 Countries and Territories”. These countries/territories are: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The 20 other currently on the list are: Angola, Austria, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of South Africa, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The first facility that will be available to receive arriving travellers is the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel in Santry.
The Tifco Hotel Group has been appointed as the service provider to assist the State in delivering mandatory hotel quarantine.
Tifco Hotel Group will provide full board accommodation services to guests in facilities designated exclusively for the purpose of quarantine.
In addition, the service provider will provide ground transportation and security services, as well as health and wellbeing services for travellers, within their facilities.
Additional hotels from the group will be added as required to support the State in implementing this public health measure.
The aim of this measure is to protect everyone - especially from challenges posed by new variants of concern. It will apply to all passengers travelling from designated States, including those who have transited through a port or airport in a designated State.
— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) March 23, 2021
All passengers travelling to Ireland from designated States, including those who have transited through a port or airport in a designated State, even if they stay airside or portside, in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Ireland, must enter mandatory hotel quarantine.
This applies to all passengers who have been in, or transitioned through a designated State, regardless of nationality. The aim of this measure is to protect the population when there is a high risk of importation of infection from Covid-19 and from challenges posed by new variants of concern.
People must also enter mandatory hotel quarantine if, regardless of which country you arrive from (designated and non-designated states), they do not provide evidence that they have a negative or ‘not detected’ result from a Covid-19 PCR test carried out no more than 72 hours before they arrive into Ireland.
At the hotels
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Donnelly said that passengers from the 33 countries will be met by border management and will then be brought by bus to one of the quarantine facilities.
Passengers will be given welcomes packs and a health screening before being brought to the their rooms.
Defence Force members will be on-site in an operational capacity and will be escorting buses transporting passengers.
Donnelly said there there will be no private security provided beyond what Tifco will provide itself. “The care of those who go into [quarantine] first of all is supervised by the Defence Forces as the State liaison officer, and then the day-to-day care really is the responsibility of the hotel management.”
People will be escorted from their rooms for exercise, said Donnelly, who said that people will be confined to their room until they receive a ‘not detected’ PCR test.
The Minister said that it will be an offence to leave quarantine and that Gardaí will be called in to assist hotel staff if a person leaves.
“The understanding is that you would go back to the hotel,” said Donnelly.
Passengers placed in mandatory quarantine will have access to an on-site clinical presence that could be either a doctor or a nurse, he said.
“The whole purpose of this really is to act as a deterrent because unfortunately given the world we’re living in now and given that this quarantine system really is, in the first instance, about protecting against variants obviously we want as little travel from these countries as possible.
“So we’ve looked at the UK and what England found was, within the first week or two, they saw about an 80% reduction in incoming travel. Now in other parts of the UK they saw after a few weeks in excess of a 90% reduction.
“So obviously we’ll have to wait to see what happens here. One of the issues will be Irish citizens, Irish residents who are in these countries or who travelled through these countries wanting to come home,” said Donnelly.
“So at some point are we going to have to look at what level of reduction there is.”
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It only took a full year to put it in place , now let’s see how many people will pass through Dublin airport now.
There are no EU countries on the list, which surely accounts for the majority?
@Biscuits Patinkin: Austria???
@Biscuits Patinkin: Austria is on it. The bigger question is, of all these countries on the list, you can only fly direct to Ireland from about 2 of them. This is going to be down to honesty.
@Denise: FF Senator Fiona O Loughlin was on the Last word yesterday. When asked why the Govt have not just implemented a blanket protocol for all non-essential travellers from all countries, instead of a short list of very exotic countries, she replied ‘ We need to keep some balance around this’!!
Just remember that when you can’t go 6km to your nearest beach again this weekend, as the Govt wants to retain’ some balance’ with the amount of people coming into the country without any restriction
@Shane Dunne: Oops didn’t spot Austria!
there’s always one
@Biscuits Patinkin: G’Day Skip
@Denise: a year too late… totally unacceptable
@Peter Cavey: Absolutely. Which means it won’t really work – those hotels will likely remain quite empty. For example, Austria is small enough that traveling to a bordering country and flying from there is barely an inconvenience. And if you’re an EU citizen, you won’t even have a stamp in your passport, so you can conveniently forget to mention your visit there and avoid the hassle. It will mostly apply to other countries on the list, as long as they have flights to other EU countries where you can get a connecting flight to Ireland.
@Denise: It won’t change much, Denise, the whole thing is just an empty gesture and a PR stunt. Travelers from the countries on the list are a very small percentage of all people flying in. Not to mention that only 2 or 3 countries from the list actually have direct flights to Ireland in normal circumstances (probably suspended now).
@Nigel o’Neill: and even they aren’t really in quarantine as allowed out 2 or 3 times a day for a smoke or a walk. Australia, locked in the room for 2 weeks even if the windows don’t open, that’s quarantine. They just can’t get anything right.
@Biscuits Patinkin: or the US, this is completely useless.
@Shane Dunne: the list goes on
If I was flying into Ireland from one of these countries and landed in london first then paid 50 quid for a ryan air flight to Dublin does that mean I avoid paying all that money for a hotel and quarantine or do they check your origin travel ? Or do I just fly into Belfast . No doubt there is an easy get around knowing how badly we have handled everything else
@bunty: Stone cold. I guarantee you there are ways around it and it will be exploited like everything else that is setup in this country.
@bunty: if they fly in from London, they’d need to have a negative covid test done within the previous 72 hours. Otherwise, they’re in the quarantine hotel anyway. The Belfast route would likely work, technically, but unless you’re passing yourself off as living in the UK, they should also ask for a negative covid test.
@Galway Girl V: yes but if you left Austria a few hours before getting your negative test in london not much good. Regarding the Northern Ireland thing it’s ok there is an option on the website to say you just drove a car down from the north and volunteer yourself into a hotel after driving across the country phew big uptake on that I’d say …….
@David Corrigan: like coming home from Africa or wherever before it kicks in,and carrying on regardless here…I’m sure it’s happening…
@bunty: incorrect. Travel is currently banned to the U.K. fines, quarantine and multiple testing regimes in place.
@bunty: of course it’s full of holes. Travel is the only thing the opposition can latch onto as they are reluctant to attack NPHET and HSE policies. This is just populism and will have zero effect on the track of the pandemic in Ireland. The third wave, though it’s starting to look more like a second wave, at Christmas wasn’t caused by people from Brazil or Nigeria or even Austria. It was caused by Irish people coming home from England to visit their families for Christmas bringing the Kent varient with them. It’s this varient that is causing the third wave in Europe and is becoming the dominant strain in the US, outdoing all other strains. They were asked not to come home, they were supposed to isolate but they and their families didn’t believe the rules applied to them.
@bunty: Sure just keep the 50 to give the security at the hotel in Dublin
@bunty:
I’m guessing it would work if you stayed in London (or wherever) for two weeks, probably at a cheaper rate and without having to quarantine, that you could return here as normal.
Is that right?
@Peter:
By “or wherever” I mean a place that isn’t on the list for mandatory quarantine when entering Ireland
@Peter: Or, and it’s just a crazy thought that I’m sure nobody else will think of, you could stay 2 days in London, get a PCR there, then travel to Dublin and conveniently forget to mention you were in a country on the list once here. “Where are you traveling from? London. Thank you, off you go.”
Can a person book a stay here if they’d just like to get out of the house for a while??
@JedBartlett:
@JedBartlett: Exactly. And they will be empty so all good. I wonder can I use my Booking.com points?
@JedBartlett: just get the cheapest Ryanair to Europe returning on the same flight with no PCR and you’re in;-)
@JedBartlett: I’ve booked the wife and kids in already.. Told them I’d drop them off to the Aircoach and they’ll be picked up at the airport.
The literal definition of “Too little, too late”.
@Seánie Ó Flannagáin: will they do checks to ensure that the quarantining travellers do not attempt to tunnel out of the hotels? They should get sniffer dogs in to control them. Also punishment cells maybe needed for difficult customers. I would make them wear blue pajamas. There should be a sign up at the entrance, “Arbeit macht frei.”
I just wonder how many big businessmen have imported low paid workers before this quarantine kicks in?
@Dave Phelan: was wondering the same thing.
@Dave Phelan: Bulgaria not on the list, so Keelings won’t worry.
@Dave Phelan: lots and from Brazil… These variants just don’t appear in the country.. They have travelled here
@Dave Phelan: liffey Meats, Ballyjamesduff
@Dave Phelan: big business men the scourge of every country. Unless you are a public sector employee there is always a business person at the end. Maybe you should be thanking them for providing jobs that pay the rent, put food on the table, etc.
@Dave Phelan: Everyone one of them. You’ll never see an Irish worker again. I blame JR Ewing.
@john s: the demand for cheap food is the issue. In this particular case, the subset of that is the unwillingness of Irish people to work in slightly above minimum pay jobs unless it involves sitting down.
@Dave Phelan: Over 1200 in the last two months. Not for a second attacking these workers who find themselves having to travel here to be exploited by meat plant owners . It was reported in that thousands of seasonal fruit workers are due to arrive also. Stand open to correction but think this story appeared in the Irish Times.
@Donal Desmond: I don’t think any country can completely shut down in and outbound air travel. We still have necessary workers flying abroad to carry out work so we should expect to have necessary workers coming in also. As long as they are carrying negative PCR test results and quarantining if required then that’s as much as can be done. A newspaper in the UK reported 10,000 passengers a day are still arriving into Heathrow alone. Now that would be a worry.
@GrumpyAulFella: Let the Brits worry about themselves. The necessary workers you mention are being exploited..Minimum wage, No sick pay, No holiday pay, being housed and shearing with 10/20 people. Again no figures concerning the outbrakes in the meat factories.
Cambodia turned a 500 bed hotel in Phnom Penh around in 33 hours. Our government is more concerned about civil liberties of individuals who voluntarily choose to accept and pay for 14 day quarantine to protect the Irish citizens from imported virus. Disgraceful ,shameful and embarrassing mismanagement by our authorities
@Dave Phelan: only 2% of current cases are travel related. We don’t have a problem with travel. This is not needed and a waste of money.
People on Ireland are the problem. There are still people going about their daily lives like there is nothing wrong. There are still people carrying on as normal even though they are waiting for a covid test or covid result.
@Alan Hayes: 100% of cases are travel related.
@Alan Hayes: 100% of cases are travel related. Maybe 2% of transmissions occurred during travel but every single case can be traced back to the origin.
This entered Ireland due to travel to Italy, it entered Italy via China. And let’s not forget the UK variant that’s accounting for the majority of our current cases (at least it was a few weeks ago anyway) which came from travel with the UK. If we stopped travel with the UK around Christmas we could be in a much better position now.
It’s an absolute farse that this took so long while the Irish people were limited to within 2k/5k of their homes.
@Alan Hayes: Exactly. You are correct. This is being done as political window dressing.
@Seamus Gallen: If implemented correctly it would have had an impact but in its current half assed format it is mere window dressing.
@Podge: Ay Christmas time you didn’t need a negative PCR test to enter Ireland big mistake by our Government imagine the difference it would have made to the cases in December and January I don’t know exact figures but I’m guessing most people arriving into Ireland now would have paid to have a PCR test prior to flying you also have to show proof of a negative result before being allowed to board a flight?? Nice distraction at the moment by our Government has certainly got people talking and distracted from where the real problems are at the moment….
@Alan Hayes: you stop the travel you stop the virus. Life gets back to normal on the island , it’s proven .
@Seamus Gallen: pointless exercise unless SF/DUP implement mandatory hotel quarantine in NI. The shambolic mismanagement up there means that people will just fly into Belfast and bring the virus in to the South.
@Dave Phelan: but certainly not surprising, right!?!
@Dave Phelan: Agree, but don’t think it was civil liberties That was a factor. It was the profits of the cartel of beef barons and fruit companies that were the major factor. Listening to Clair Byrne …Garda representative stating as of now they still have received No instructions on the role of their involvement. The make it up as you go along plan of Donnelly and this government will blow up in their faces .
@Alan Hayes: What on Gods name is the reason for not having all travellers hotel quarantined here? Ah Alan, are on a different planet saying travels not an issue. How did variants get here in march and dec 2020, swimming the Atlantic or Irish Sea? When you see 34,000 travelled here in the last 2 weeks with a huge chunk non essential, and then new variants suddenly start popping up, just a coincidence yeah? If there was an every country approach to hotel quarantine I bet that figure wouldn’t be near 34k people.
@Dave Phelan: And I’m sure everyone has observed the 14 day Q in Cambodia
No one is paying off security guards to turn a blind eye
So naive its speechless
Irish lads in Australia are walking off building sites where they get $2k a week to work in Q hotels as security for $500 a week, why ???
@Gavin Mckenna: in the time those 34,000 travellers arrived there were 7,162 new confirmed cases with 143 ( using the 2% rate) attributed to travel. So thats on average 10 cases a day being imported. I looked to see the figures for new variants over the 14 days but couldn’t find any, but the majority are likely contained in that 143.
Too little… too late. These measures should have been put in place in Dec 2020!!
@Mary Larkin: yea if us Irish didn’t get so lazy we wouldn’t be relying on foreign workers to do our work.
Dole is too enticing
@Stephen: Suppose if you agree to work for minimum wage, No sick pay, No holiday pay, Share a house with 10/20 people , rent deducted from your wages. Then it would be a perfect job. Notice you make no reference to the likes of Larry Goodman and cohorts which cost this country hundreds of millions concerning tribunals. The horse meat scandal…yet you choose to attack workers who are being exploited.
Infection rates starting to sky rocket in parts of Europe again yet not on the list. This is yet another farce from this government.
If one person from a plane tested positive shouldn’t the whole flight be quarantined????
Can’t wait for the tribunal in 2033 to investigate how Tifco actually got this gig.
@GOOПΞɌΛDΛM: its all about who you know…. (wink, wink)
€1,875 for 2-weeks in a Dublin hotel with breakfast lunch and dinner, security, transport to and from the hotel and two Covid tests.
That’s a bargain, average €156 per night
@Fi Wyse: plus medical needs…
@Fi Wyse: It must be nice to have so much cash to throw around. This will catch those who have to travel and there will be plenty of loop holes for those that are connected or who the government considers essential. Like everything else it won’t be implemented fully.
@Rob Lyn: I don’t have cash to throw around. I keep it neat and tidy in my wallet.
@Fi Wyse: per person of your family. so if there are 3 or 4 of you ……..??
@Fi Wyse: obviously you haven’t stayed in a hotel in Dublin lately….city centre hotels with breakfast under €90 per night….I feel for the hotels because it is obvious they are on their knees….btw I have to travel to Dublin for essential worker reasons.. once you return to your hotel after work, all you can do is continue working and watch TV
I hope they didn’t play professionals to produce that website. A college student would do better
How about vaccine booking portal? Move on, this too little too late.
Should be all arrivals
So €1875 to be a prisoner for 12 days in a shitty airport Hotel being watched by the defence forces…. Or a €2000 fine and you are free to do what you want? I’m in the aviation industry and I am totally against mandatory hotel quarantine…. But jesus lads at least make it work. Talk about a half arsed attempt. Sums up this tone deaf government perfectly.
@CMT: You dont get the option to pay a fine or do the quarentine. You must prepay and are forced to quarentine….hense the defence force to assit with moving people to the hotels/camps.
With the suggested costs I’m afraid it’s only encouraging people to find a work around.
Pointless endeavour when you can just reroute through Belfast….
@Eddie Michael: why haven’t SF/DUP implemented hotel quarantine in NI? That’s the real problem and danger.
I am wondering if the staff working in those hotels will get Covid vaccine should they chose to get it. After all, it is a high risk job now, isn’t it?
@Krystian #PL2050: are they getting proactive testing? Aussie hotel quarantine staff tested every 3 days. Outbreaks into the community have generally been via the staff.
It is always going to be late in Ireland when you have people who require votes making the decisions.
@Barry Wilson: the thing about this though Barry is 99% of the population backed this months ago and they still made a balls of it so even when the voters want it they can’t do it
The website isn’t working
The berry pickers will be arriving soon , supported by Simon same as last year .
@William Mcgee: we’ve plenty of people on welfare at the moment. Maybe they should all be berry pickers to keep our food industry going.
I completely understand people would be angry at those travelling given we aren’t supposed to go further than 5km
However , put personal anger aside and consider the implications of this
When do we roll back on it
6 months
A year
Ten years?
A dangerous precedent of essentially imprisoning People at will has now been set
I just take Namibia as an example for the Governments incompetence: The border to South Africa is closed and the 7 day incidence at 40. About half the one in Ireland. No mutations.
And Germany downgraded Namibia from high risk to ordinary risk country.
Ffs
Looking at the countries on the list it seems we will end up with a bunch of empty hotels making a fortune, unless of course Ireland has become a destination of choice for poor african countries.
@Michael Creagh: how would they “make a fortune “, if nobody stays in them,they get no money.
Well done to the government for bringing in this measure, and if lockdown was to continue till the end of 2021 with everyone vaccinated it would solve the Covid 19 problem once and for all.
@Fran Proins: shredded
@Fran Proins: Why not go to 2923?
Fair play lads. Only 12 months and 2 weeks late on this one. Equivalent of calling the fire service after the fire has gone out..
Should be compulsory for all traveling to our little island ..end of .
Let’s celebrate woohoooo
@Seosamh: It’s like celebrating the millennium in 2001
@The Bolt: that actually correct 2000 is the last day ofthemillenium
@Seán O’Sullivan: grizzly Admas DID have a beard
Full Board? Bliss.
So is there direct flights from these states to Ireland or is into Amsterdam or London and then onwards to Dublin. Surely they would have checked the arrival of passengers and estimated who and where from etc if your non EU then its a stop and answer some questions before you can proceed
Ridiculous populist move to make it look like the government is doing something. The virus is endemic, closing off travel is pointless now.
@Ainm: the government didn’t want to do it, pressured by populist opposition BS and the Joe Duffy brigade. It’s an irrelevance.
Would be nice to see opposition questioning on the dosage gap for Pfizer, much more effective way to get us back towards normal.
Why are the Gardai not checking in on the current self-isolating people? The previous system wasnt implemented properly; this system won’t be implemented properly either. There will be plenty of loop holes. If some summer workers have to come in for a company you may bet that an alternative special accommodation paid for (and owned by) the company they are working for will suddenly appear.
Why does only one company have the contract? Why do the hotels have to be in Dublin? These people are isolating for two weeks… much better accommodation, away from a centre of population with space for exercise etc without the danger of meeting a local could be found. Let’s be honest here, this isn’t about stopping the virus. This is about optics and spin and maybe even a bit of modern Irish ‘tendered’ corruption. Who knew who to be able to get this sweet contract?
@Rob Lyn: Gardai is checking on people self- isolating. I can confirm this from personal experience.
So I’m coming from one of those countries in July. Do you think that if all the vulnerable people are vaccinated the two week quarantine will stop? I’m vaccinated also. So having to quarantine in a hotel when I’m vaccinated and both my parents are seems ridiculous.
@Nickwhick: you can still have and pass the virus after inoculation.
@Fabio Dillon: yes I know. But my thing is when everyone is vaccinated and protected what’s the big deal about passing it on?
Ay Christmas time you didn’t need a negative PCR test to enter Ireland big mistake by our Government imagine the difference it would have made to the cases in December and January I don’t know exact figures but I’m guessing most people arriving into Ireland now would have paid to have a PCR test prior to flying you also have to show proof of a negative result before being allowed to board a flight?? Nice distraction at the moment by our Government has certainly got people talking and distracted from where the real problems are at the moment….
Will asylum seekers be required to observe these regulations too? Or does Direct Provision suffice as a hotel?
Breaking news worthy?
How come it’s 12days? Has anyone been able to even get a quote on that system, I tried over 30days for single room and says not available
@pkunzip doom2.zip: €1,875 for 2-weeks from March 31st is what I was quoted.
Okay so the website is accessible now but any of the 5 dates I’ve put in are unavailable. it filled up pretty quickly
This literally doesn’t make any sense you can fly from the UAE for example to anywhere in Europe and then connect to Dublin and avoid this list of restricted countries.
@Shane De Paor: The fella from UAE has to quarantine but the people he sat beside on the connecting flight does the home quarantine? So those that go home to do the self isolating can get infected on the flight. And we all know some people won’t self isolate.
Does it have a pool, is the bar open? Asking for a friend
The website isn’t working
Just tried it and it’s not working. It’s been loading for 5 mins. Not my job.
If a person cannot pay, if they just don’t have the money , does the state pay for them?
Does the price include all drinks or snacks a person might require over 24 hours?
If a person needs something from the pharmacy is that covered?
If a person is bored silly on day 2 and wants to watch a movie is there a charge for that?
How many towels do you get, a charge for extras?
Are the sheets changed daily for the E150 a day?
Can you send up a pint(s) and will it be normal price or Covid price?
Whats for dinner, egg and chips or Filet Mignon?
@Eddie O’Neill: you have to pre-book , pre-pay , before arrival.
€1875 for a 12 night stay.
@ciaran kavanagh: The Crowne Plaza must be rubbing their hands in delight…..except I think only two of the 33 countries have direct flights into Ireland….so most people will have a PCR test in London or wherever they land and stroll in, not a bother, no need to quarantine…. as per usual the Irish Government have really thought this through…not!
What happens if a passenger won’t book and says won’t pay and is taken by soldiers under duress, will hotel accept them ? Will gardai put them in a cell ?
Out of interest, what happens to somebody if they are an asylum seeker /economic migrant? Will they be in a hotel too or just packed off into direct provision?
This is going to be some laugh
Did anyone else go onto the site? You can only book 12 nights?? where in the world does 12 nights equal 14 days quarantine???
“Only 2 % of virus cases due to importing” If the tracing crew only ask where you have been 48 hrs back how can they claim this figure accurate? If you flew in on Sunday took sick on Thursday tested positive and asked by tracers where were your contacts back to Tuesday, as happened to someone I know the figures are way off.
Anyone Name a Country on The List That Has Direct Flights From to Ireland If you get more than4 Apply To be on The Chase
What if someone is flying from Brazil and has a transfer to Dublin in Lisbon or Madrid?
@Wadi: That’s ridiculous! Is it real or a spoof?
@Wadi: If it was implemented correctly then the prices should be outrageous to deter casual travellers. Problem is when it’s a half assed job like this is, the prices just encourage people to find workarounds.
clicked on the link to have a look at prices….why are all prices in US Dollars???? We have Euro here in Ireland!!!!
How much is it going to be?
@Ciara: 1850 for 12 nights
this been the irish government i guess the contract pays the hotel whether it’s in use or not ?
Why the 4am.start. is there a plane load of Brazilians arriving at 3am?
Get a grip people.
Too little too late.
9 months to late
Very unfair and a waste of time because people who travel the most and most likely to catch the virus the like politicians are exempt!
have your say