A leading expert has said that introducing a strong quarantine regime for international tourists arriving in Ireland is “really not rocket science.”

It comes amid rising concern over the number of tourists coming into the country and ignoring regulations requiring them to self-isolate for two weeks.

The Government has said it has no plans to shut down flights into the country; however, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has warned tourists that “now is not the time to come to Ireland on your holiday.”

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Dr Tomás Ryan, Associate Professor at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College, said there is no use in forcing people to fill out quarantine forms if we are not going to check up on them.

“It is really not rocket science,” he said. “If you take in a lot of cases from a country that has a high number of cases itself, you are going to have significant seeding in the population.”

Mandatory quarantine

He said travel from places like Florida and Texas, “two of the most highly infected regions of the entire US” are essentially arriving in unrestricted.

“It is clear people are not following the quarantine period because it is not mandatory,” he said “We have mandatory form filling; we don’t have mandatory quarantine.”

He said the main worry is that people from high-risk areas that are choosing to go on vacation at this point in time, “may not be the most cautious people in the world.”

“When they are coming to Ireland and they are not quarantining, this creates a problem,” he said. “It creates a problem for a lot of people and of course it puts people in our hospitality sector at some degree of risk and at some degree of anxiety.”

A kitesurfer in the sea off Portmarnock Beach in Dublin, 29-05-2020. Image: Brian Lawless/PA Wire/PA Images

He said we don’t need to shut down flights if we can put a proper quarantine regime in place.

“I don’t know of any country that is shutting down its flights,” he said. “We shouldn’t need to do that.

“Canada has effectively restricted travel from the US since April. It is a 14-day quarantine and if you break that quarantine you get significant fines.”

US quarantine

He said there are strict quarantine rules in place for people travelling within the US itself.

“Even Florida, which obviously has its own problems, if you come from New York which is still considered a problem region, to Florida and you don’t quarantine, you can get up to 60 days in prison,” he said.

“If you fly from New York or Florida to Hawaii, which obviously wants to protect its island situation, and you break your two-week quarantine, even though you are flying from within the US, you can go to prison for up to a year.

“So, if you can have effective quarantine within a country, between different regions in a country, why can’t we manage it here in Ireland?

“Why can’t we have an effective quarantine from people coming from particularly high-risk regions like the US?”

Coastal Cliffs Around Toe Head On The Wild Atlantic Way In West Cork, 07-11-2015. Image: Trish Punch/Zuma Press/PA Images

He said he would be 100% in favour of a double testing strategy - with people tested before they leave their home country and after they arrive in Ireland.

Speaking yesterday, the acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said mandatory quarantine for anyone arriving in would be a “desirable measure” but urged people not to assume someone is a tourist based on their accent.

Dr Ryan agreed, noting that we don’t want to breed a “gotcha culture” in Ireland – but said he would prefer if NPHET “restricted themselves to public health advice.”

You can listen back to the full interview here: