Government asked to clarify why ‘green list’ not updated

The Labour Party has called on the Government to clarify why the so-called travel "green list" has not been updated in more than a month.

Two Government sources have indicated to the Irish Times that the list is now unlikely to be changed until the new long-term plan for living alongside Covid-19 is published on September 14th.

Labour leader Alan Kelly said travellers are confused, given the Government said the list would be updated every two weeks.

“People are trying to make plans and they need some direction from Government. If they say they are going to do something then they should do it.”

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A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the Government decided on August 18th that there would be no change to the current travel advisory pending a review of the international situation. "The public health advice has not changed, which is against all non-essential travel."

In mid-August, the Cabinet deferred the planned removal of Greece from the list and sources said the State's public health team would re-examine the overall travel advice.

The review is understood to be within the remit of the Department of the Taoiseach. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this week issues in relation to the list would be dealt with in context of the Government's new plan for Covid-19.

‘New look’

Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention are used by the Government for deciding which countries should be on the green list for travel purposes.

When the list was first drafted, the Republic’s infection rate was about five per 100,000. This figure is now at 31.2 cases per 100,000.

A senior source said that if the green list was applied on the basis of allowing quarantine-free travel from other countries with similar levels of Covid-19 it would create a “perverse situation where we could open ourselves up to travel from places with high levels of infection”.

“This is why we are taking a new look at the list and are reviewing it, because obviously that does not make sense.”

Ireland now has a higher 14-day incidence per 100,000 of population than the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Greece amongst other countries.