So what has Austria ever done to us?
When the travel advisory group of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) added 43 countries to the list of 33 countries listed as Category 2, it caused conniptions within Government.
Included in the list were 17 EU states and also the US. The European countries included France, Italy and Germany. All passengers coming from those countries would be subject to mandatory hotel quarantine.
Within two days, all 17 EU countries were removed for reasons that might be valid and fully justified in the eyes of Ministers but appear to have had nothing to do with the Health (Amendment) Act 2021.
There is no section in the Act that says the 'rules shall strictly apply to countries unless there is a big crowd of our own people living there'
Poor Austria, which has been on the list since mid-March, was left there, the sole remaining EU country on the naughty step.
Simon Coveney used a disingenuous argument when he seemed to suggest that the law was never intended to capture countries where many Irish people lived.
He told Highland Radio: “Take France for example. There are 20,000 Irish people in France. Many come home for the summer, a lot are students
“Is it reasonable if those people have tested negative or have been vaccinated or recovered from Covid, is it reasonable to put them in a hotel if they have a home to go to where they could be quarantined?”
The problem is that the law made no distinction between Irish citizens and non-citizens. There is no section in the Act that says the “rules shall strictly apply to countries unless there is a big crowd of our own people living there”.
Many of the people coming in from Dubai last week, for example, were Irish families. They were not allowed quarantine at home.
When the law was enacted in early March, it applied to all countries and to citizens of all countries, including Irish people. What it is now is a discriminatory law giving a free pass to countries considered important to Ireland and throwing the rest on the slag heap. It’s hard to disagree with economist Edgar Morgenroth’s comments on Twitter that it seems xenophobic.
France is exactly the type of country the law was intended to target. Some 5 per cent of all its cases are the new mutations
Section 38E was quite clear in its definition of a “designated state”, or what has become known as a Category 2 state. It’s a place where it is known there has been a sustained human transmission of Covid-19, or variant of concern, or where it is present in a form from which there is a high risk of importation of infection or contamination.
In other words, Category 2 countries captured places where there were new variants or mutations (primarily Brazilian or South African variants) but also countries that were Covid hotspots.
It did not distinguish between Covid-19 hotspots in the EU and the rest of the world. If there were concerns about EU fundamental rights or the free movement of citizens within the union why was that not raised by Attorney General Paul Gallagher or Ministers at the time?
Why was there not a peep out of anyone when an EU country, Austria, was added in the middle of March (there was an outbreak of the South African strain in the Tyrol)?
Nphet used three criteria to measure the threshold of risk. The first was in relation to the level of new mutations such as the South African and Brazilian variations in those countries. The second was a measure for high infection rates. It decided the threshold was 500 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days (Ireland’s is about 160 per 100,000 at present). The third measure was a level of over 2½ Ireland’s case rates.
The fact is that Austria, France, Germany and Italy were included in the list not only because of high numbers but also because of the fact that each has a significant number of cases of the Brazilan or South African mutations. They qualified under all three measures.
The complaints directed at the Department of Health and Nphet included lack of consultation (that was disputed) and too conservative a measure of what constitutes a Covid hotspot. But the assessments were carried out by public health experts within Nphet. If the number is 500 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days, there is a problem. There are some EU states where the current 14-day rate per 100,000 people is stratospheric. Estonia is at 1,364, Hungary is at 1,196 and Poland is at 923.
The manner in which the law is now applied is actually discriminatory – against Austria
France has a huge outbreak at the moment, which includes a presence of the dangerous new variants. France is exactly the type of country the law was intended to target. Some 5 per cent of all its cases are the new mutations.
The meeting between Coveney and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was said to be “chilly” and Donnelly – rightly – tried to stand his ground. What has happened now is that the law has been exposed as a complete charade, window dressing. Look at the 33 countries that have been added. They include Qatar; Nigeria; San Marino; North Macedonia; and the Wallis and Futuna Islands.
Yes, me too. I had to look up the last one. Not a hurling stronghold.
There is nothing to prevent EU states from imposing controls when faced with extenuating public health risks like there are at present. The laws must be non-discriminatory. The manner in which the law is now applied is actually discriminatory – against Austria.
There was, unfortunately, a failure by the Government to foresee the consequences of a clear and explicit law. What did Ministers expect? Did they expect mandatory hotel quarantine would apply only to poorer, faraway countries and to faraway people and not to Europeans and – perish the thought – Irish people?