“Not Yet Mandatory”

at

Dublin Airport

Yesterday.

In the Dáil.

Independent TD Michael Collins raised the story in yesterday’s Irish Independent about some passengers failing to fill in a form detailing where they would be staying for the following two weeks, saying:

“We see today that a large percentage of people flying into Ireland are not filling in the form asking them how they intend to socially isolate for two weeks. We need to allay any fears in tourism communities, and that can be done if the completion of these forms was mandatory in airports and ports.”

During his response, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said:

“In terms of the airport forms, they are not yet mandatory. They may well need to become mandatory. That is something we are considering at the moment, but I disagree with the Deputy. Making it mandatory for people to fill in forms to self-isolate for 14 days when they come to the country is not good for tourism.

“People will not come to Ireland if they have to isolate for 14 days. We need to get to the point where we can have air travel start again. I want air travel to start again for business and leisure but that will have to be done safely. That is being worked on at the moment.”

Related: Passengers refusing to give details of plans for quarantine (Independent.ie)

Transcript: Oireachtas.ie

Pic: Rollingnews

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28 thoughts on ““Not Yet Mandatory”

  1. Harry Robertson

    Have never heard of anyone who wouldn’t go to America because they had to fill out forms. That’s nonsense. Either the country is in lockdown or not.

  2. Covascotia

    The form isn’t the issue, it’s the requirement to self isolate which Varadkar has implied he doesn’t expect people to do.

  3. broadbag

    Typical half-bottomed effort from this govt, ah sure we’ll trust people it will be grand. It has been proven time and again during this event that people are selfish goobpoos and many won’t do anything unless it’s strictly enforced. Get the finger out Leo!

  4. diddy

    the light touch , here take a leaflet, approach at Dublin airport is baffling. while the rest if us are bored out of our skulls taking trips to Tesco’s and back, people are swanning into the country, untested and untraced.

  5. Janet, I ate my avatar

    reassure people in tourism…right, can’t even tell them if covid is extended, never mind put in protection

  6. Blonto

    What an absolute crock. The govt is playing another blunder. They’re talking about tourism when everyone has to stay with 5km. FFS. Northern Territories in Aus are charging a $2,500 fee for mandatory 14 day quarantine. In other words, please stay away. Why are people even flying at the moment. Why are planes in the air. We’re on an island so it’s easy to lock down movement in and out. But instead this govt make the wrong decision again. What a pack of idiots.
    Look at NZ. Do what they did. No matter how late to the party we are.
    The media needs to stop making out that staying at home is difficult. For most people it’s easy.
    Stop saying we’re doing great. We’re not. The number of new infections says so. The stories about people breaking the SD rules backs that up. We’re not doing great.
    Anyone breaking the SD rules is prolonging this situation for everyone. Stop being muppets. It’s not difficult. Stay home. Stay in. Entertain yourselves. Grow up and be responsible.
    Jaysus. Am I still on this feckin island.

    1. Johnnythree

      @Blonto Was gonna type all that but you beat me to it. Thanks
      Why the poopa-doopa are we on lockdown if you can just fly in and go on holiday???? Like really, why?
      Everyone so enthused about how good we are at this. We are doing a brutal job, on all levels.
      mercy-me!

    2. SOQ

      Actually no- for some, staying at home is not easy. Abusive relationships, over crowding, unemployment, increased use of alcohol and drugs, loneliness, poverty, mental health issues, worrying about the future- even children are suffering if the high number of calls to Child helplines are anything to go by.

      We aren’t doing all that to then watch people breeze in from God knows where and get on their high horses about being asked the most basic of questions like ‘where are you staying?’or ‘what is the purpose of your visit?’

      I don’t buy this tourism spin for one second. There is no tourist industry in Ireland right now- because all the facilities should be shut. Despite the country being under house arrest we should still encourage tourism- really?

      On your bike Leo.

      1. Cian

        Yeah – who is travelling at the moment? And how many people are there and for what reasons.

        What are other EU countries doing? Do they have a mandatory quarantine? have they blocked airports?

          1. Cian

            I’d be interested to know:
            – who is travelling into Ireland?
            – how many people are there travelling into Ireland?
            – What reasons are people travelling into Ireland?
            – what are other EU countries doing?

          2. SOQ

            Agreed Cian – I too would like to know what is so important as to have this ongoing security breach- and that is what it is surely?

            In relation to your last question- EU countries are doing their own thing right from full closure through to Ireland’s business as usual stance.

            But, despite have a hardcore Brexit government, Britain is the same as Ireland which suggests it has nothing to do with the EU. If any country was in a position to give the two fingers to the EU’s freedom of movement policy, it is Britain after all.

  7. Clampers Outside

    Was a lockdown necessary…
    Was the Swedish model better…
    What prompted the UK to u-turn and go the lockdown route…

    The predictive model that was used to prompt the UK to u-turnhas been released to Github.
    But apparently the code was “massaged” before public release, and even in it’s current state the model code has many holes in it, even being called sh-1-tea code.

    Discussion on that, with links to further analysis in the following and I believe, well worth a read…

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/computer-model-locked-down-world-turns-out-be-shtcode

      1. SOQ

        I see my points about it spewing out different results with the same seeds and parameters is present- also about taking averages.

        This is not my area but I have had the misfortune of trying to load those sorts of things onto new machines. They are essentially academic R n D tools which do not take into consideration the rules of MS operating systems- so they need to be ran as local administrator all the time, meaning zero security on the machine.

        And then, they rarely install as they should. Referring to the documentation is a waste of time, assuming there is any to begin with, so the person or persons who wrote the thing usually has to remote in and tweak it. And that’s not even considering what it is supposed to do when it is actually up and running.

        My point being that academic research culture is generally a bit all over the place when it comes to IT.

        1. Clampers Outside

          Thanks SOQ, I’ve noticed that, about academic research and IT from differ topics. It’d appear from my own observation to be a fairly widespread (across many fields of study) issue.

  8. goldenbrown

    The problem here is we’re all arguing over the architecture of our “lockdown” when in fact that battle was lost months ago – fact is this country didn’t have any meaningful disaster plan in place and it got caught out.

    We enforced precisely zilch at our ports allowing scot free re-entry for all those skiiing groups and rugby fans travelling from the Italian epicentre of the pathogen at the time and worse still permitted consequence-free bidirectional travel to Cheltenham which is now among the worst areas in the UK (the Gloucestershire NHS trust which covers the direct area now reports a death rate that’s double that in it’s neighbouring NHS trusts for areas like Bristol, Swindon and Bath

    Whingeing and bitching about peoples rights, rolling our eyes as the great and good quaffed at Cheltenham whilst a virus that we fully knew about and that couldn’t care less what you or I think was enabled to thrive and travel. shure what can y do, twill be grand.

    We eventually implemented something very half-assed (fully loaded flight’s with no distancing of any type continue and ferry passengers are unhindered save for scary yellow leaflets and oh yeah optional forms to fill out, NI reg’s everywhere….etc

    The only substantial reason it’s not worse than it is is that we’re an underpopulated island.

    Today as a population we are being heavily information-managed into thinking life ain’t too bad when in fact we are in the midst of an unfolding catastrophe!!! seems we’re all still in dreamy dreamy land. WAKE UP EVERYONE FFS!

    1. Cian

      I’d have to agree except for the fact that the number of infected each day is dropping (while at the same time we are testing more and more people – we have one of the highest tests-per-million) AND the numbers dying each day is dropping (which is a proxy for the number of people infected 10-14 days earlier).

      Did we do a good job? – yes;
      could we have done better? possibly (with hindsight – definitely);

      If you look at the comments across BS at the moment – about half of them are calling for the restrictions to be loosened that it was all overkill (look at Sweden!!) the other half are saying we acted too late (look at Australia!!) – as long as there is a 50:50 split I reckon that Ireland did right! ;-)

  9. Newhen

    I came back from Spain 3 weeks ago into Dublin airport via Heathrow (I have been out of the country a few years bar occasional visits but due to the crisis had to return). The officer at passport control noted down where I came from (I saw him write it down on a sheet). Nobody else approached me bar a lady with a Covid-19 information sheet which she handed to me at arms length. I was lucky enough to be able to self isolate in a separate apartment from my family for a couple of weeks.

  10. Ringsend Incinerator

    Big mistake by the HSE to use Google Translate for those forms at the airport.

    The advice seems to have come out as “Peddle aimlessly in groups around the city on Dublin and Bleeper Bikes for two weeks as you enjoy your week’s holiday in Ireland.”

    Send these millennial bums home.

  11. DOC

    Crime down Domestic violence up
    And in other news…
    The British Government have announced that all arrivals and returning holidaymakers face two weeks isolation THREE MONTHS after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global health emergency. What a sick joke

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