An element of xenophobia has entered debate in Ireland over mandatory hotel quarantines during the pandemic, according to the Minister for Health.
Legislation to enforce supervised quarantines in hotels for people arriving from 33 high-risk countries has now passed all stages of the Oireachtas, after approval in the Seanad this afternoon.
The Bill will now progress to President Michael D Higgins to be signed into law — however, the date the new measures will come into force remains unclear.
Various politicians and public health experts had urged the Government to expand the proposed quarantine measures to all arrivals into the State.
Speaking today, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that prejudices against people from other countries had coloured debate on the matter.
“From a small number of quarters, some parts of this debate for me have had a whiff of xenophobia about it,” he said.
“I’ve heard people say we must protect our people from foreign people – that’s not what this is about.
“And in fact, we are moving away from describing these variants as the Brazilian variant or the South African variant, we are moving towards calling them by the names such as B117.”
Dublin protest
Speaking in the Seanad on Monday, Labour Senator Ivana Bacik called for the Government Bill to go further in restricting non-essential travel in and out of the State, but cautioned against xenophobia.
“I am an internationalist, I don’t like the idea of border controls. I didn’t support zero Covid measures initially, nor did Labour,” she said.
“Only with the emergence of the third wave, the news about the new variants and the clear scientific evidence, did we call for a National Aggressive Suppression Strategy.
“It’s become increasingly clear that while only a small number of cases can be directly traced back to inward travel, such travel re-seeds and helps to spread new and far more easily transmissible variants.”
The dreadful riots at the weekend in Dublin show us... how quickly resentment at ongoing lockdowns can feed racism
Ms Bacik said that a protest seen in Dublin over the weekend indicated how resentment over Covid-19 restrictions could feed racism and xenophobia.
“We have seen still more frightening variants detected here; the B1351 variant first identified in South Africa and the P1 variant detected in Brazil. I agree entirely with Senator Marie Sherlock that we should start calling these variants by their true names and not by reference to the country in which they were first identified.
“This is an important point. The dreadful riots at the weekend in Dublin show us the importance of not spreading fake news or disinformation; of how quickly resentment at ongoing lockdowns can feed racism and xenophobia.
“So when we call for stricter border controls to prevent and curb transmission rates, we must be mindful of language.”
Variants of concern
On Friday, Minister Donnelly announced that a number of states in Central and South America will be added to the Government’s list of “high-risk” countries for travel into the Republic, bringing the total to 33.
Minister Donnelly said the aim of the measure was to “protect the population from challenges posed by new variants of concern.”
The quarantine measures apply to all passengers from the designated states, “regardless of nationality”, the Minister added.
He reiterated that official advice remains to avoid all non-essential international travel during the pandemic.
Under the new legislation, passengers arriving into the Republic from selected high-risk countries will have to book a slot in a designated quarantine hotel.
The traveller will foot a bill of around €2,000, which will cover accommodation, full board, laundry and transport.
Those who flout mandatory quarantine rules could face fines of up to €4,000 or imprisonment, under the new laws.
