The Dáil will today debate legislation that would provide mandatory hotel quarantine for people coming here from 20 high-risk areas.
It will also affect arrivals without a negative Covid-19 test, but Opposition TDs will today call for it to affect everyone coming into the country.
However, the Government will stand firm on the policy of mandatory quarantine for the 20 listed countries and those without a negative Covid-19 test.
It is understood Opposition parties will immediately start tabling amendments to test this position.
Timeline
The mandatory quarantine measures would be introduced next month.
People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith says this needs to be done sooner.
“People are travelling into the country, and it's the variants that are causing us problems at the moment."
Dr Niall Conroy is an Irish consultant in public health medicine in Queensland, Australia, which has the measure in place for everyone.
He says a similar policy would work best in Ireland.
Chains of transmission
Dr Conroy said: “If you stop all cases coming in, then you stop all undetected chains of transmission. If you only stop some people coming into the country or if you only quarantine some people, then you're only stopping some chains of transmission.”
Dr Conroy added: “As long as you have undetected chains of transmission coming in within a country, you're going to get a rise in cases. That's one of the more difficult parts of hotel quarantine, it's sort of an all or nothing thing.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has unveiled the Government's revised plan for managing the coronavirus pandemic and leading the country out of lockdown in the months ahead.
The plan, titled Covid-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead, sets out how in-school education and childcare services will be reinstated in phases from March 1st.
It will be reviewed on April 5th, with Government set to revise conditions based on data rather than dates.
Meanwhile, people with underlying health conditions are being moved up the vaccine priority list.
Under the changes announced by the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on Tuesday evening, people deemed at very high risk, such as those actively receiving treatment for cancer, will be moved to “Cohort 4” and vaccinated after the over-70s.
People aged 16 to 69 deemed at high risk, such as those with a severe mental illness, or with chronic heart disease, will be in Cohort 5.
