Are we there yet? Your second Travel Megathread (threadbans in OP}

hmmm

namloc1980 wrote: »

In that case we might as well throw the towel in now. Coronavirus is not going away and the possibility of variants ia going to be there forever just like endemic influenza. Are we going to be dealing with severe travel restrictions and MHQ for years to come? Essentially trapped on this island for the foreseeable future.

Someone in government has decided that the island will need to be shut down for fear of some unspecified new variant which may emerge sometime in the future. I cannot believe that the rest of the cabinet has signed off on this ludicrous policy.

There is no timeline provided as to when this restriction will be lifted. There is no criteria for which countries will be added to the list, at any time you might find a new country added. People who are out of the country (e.g. some of the many foreign workers who contribute greatly to our economy) may not have to pay a huge sum and be forced to quarantine in a hotel for 2 weeks because of an overnight decision.

Irish companies who do work abroad can't send an engineer off to visit one of these countries. A foreign engineer can't visit Ireland.

The chance of the tourism industry recovering once we are all vaccinated is dead.

I don't want to sound dramatic, but a huge decision has been made and there seems to have been very little scrutiny of what has happened. Many of these countries are our biggest trading partners and biggest sources of FDI.

Lmkrnr

Thank fuke the North is part of the UK. The GFA will lets us escape through there should we need to. I would recommend anyone traveling to Ireland use NI and travel South to the ROI.

Donald Trump

Tazz T wrote: »

I'm not focussed on the 'travel' as you begrudgingly like to put it. I'm focussed on the disproportional reaction from the government and the damage it's doing. The virus is not going to rampage through the country. You've been reading too much Dublin Live.

As for the US is happy that 'ireland has got its **** together'. The US is open - most of it for months. Completely ridiculous comparison. They will be flying to europe next month while irish Europeans won't.

US is not "open" in the sense of fully back to normal. They are well on the way to vaccinating people but that depends on the state. Some states are only just opening up to general registration for it this week. Some reached that stage weeks ago.


I have friends over there. A few locations along the East coast, then over on the West coast and one in the south. None of them are back in their respective offices.


As for "rampage" in Ireland, your memory is not so good. I actually did a 2 week isolation in January. I didn't have to - technically as I was a close contact of a confirmed case I only needed to "restrict my movements" but I did not want to risk spreading the virus to others if I did have it. So I isolated insofar as possible. Did I contract the virus? I don't know. I didn't have symptoms.

Tazz T

saabsaab wrote: »

I have already stated that I believe that vaccinations will bring it to an end (barring a new variant) probably in June. Until then restrict travel.

You think travel will be restricted just until June.


LOL


Close the airporters like you will be the first ones to complain next year when you're still paying for PCRs, a lack of routes and airlines out of Dublin and massively inflated ticket prices next year and beyond. You made it happen.

Right now you don't care because you don't work in any industry impacted by the destruction of the aviation/tourism industry. Amirite?

Donald Trump

namloc1980 wrote: »

In that case we might as well throw the towel in now. Coronavirus is not going away and the possibility of variants is going to be there forever just like endemic influenza. Are we going to be dealing with severe travel restrictions and MHQ for years to come? Essentially trapped on this island for the foreseeable future.

Why do you race to that conclusion? There is no need to be hysterical or all drama queen-esque about it.



When people are vaccinated for existing variants, most who come in contact with it, eliminate it from their systems quickly. This drastically reduces the chances of mutations.


The less mutations, the less chances of having one that has an advantage.

Tazz T

Donald Trump wrote: »

US is not "open" in the sense of fully back to normal. They are well on the way to vaccinating people but that depends on the state. Some states are only just opening up to general registration for it this week. Some reached that stage weeks ago.


I have friends over there. A few locations along the East coast, then over on the West coast and one in the south. None of them are back in their respective offices.


As for "rampage" in Ireland, your memory is not so good. I actually did a 2 week isolation in January. I didn't have to - technically as I was a close contact of a confirmed case I only needed to "restrict my movements" but I did not want to risk spreading the virus to others if I did have it. So I isolated insofar as possible. Did I contract the virus? I don't know. I didn't have symptoms.

No context there at all or relevance to my statements. i too have friends in the states. They say no restrictions for months. Some states no masks even. Many making plans to travel to Europe as early as next month since that's when flights can start.

My memory is not good regarding 'rampage'. Again, i said there will be no rampage. this is over next month. end of. done. gone. Just all the damage from government policy that won't be lifted for months. No one cares about your two week isolation rampage. What's your point in mentioning it?

hmmm

Tazz T wrote: »

Right now you don't care because you don't work in any industry impacted by the destruction of the aviation/tourism industry. Amirite?

It's more than that. We have lots of French, Italian, Brazilians working in some of our most important and productive sectors (e.g. as programmers for major multinationals). Ireland has overnight become quite hostile to them. Thank f**k we didn't add Poland and India to the list. There's going to be knock-on effects of this, and we haven't even thought of half of them.

namloc1980

Donald Trump wrote: »

Why do you race to that conclusion? There is no need to be hysterical or all drama queen-esque about it.



When people are vaccinated for existing variants, most who come in contact with it, eliminate it from their systems quickly. This drastically reduces the chances of mutations.


The less mutations, the less chances of having one that has an advantage.

So what's the endgame? When do these severe restrictions end?

TobyHolmes

Donald Trump wrote: »

US is not "open" in the sense of fully back to normal. They are well on the way to vaccinating people but that depends on the state. Some states are only just opening up to general registration for it this week. Some reached that stage weeks ago.


I have friends over there. A few locations along the East coast, then over on the West coast and one in the south. None of them are back in their respective offices.


As for "rampage" in Ireland, your memory is not so good. I actually did a 2 week isolation in January. I didn't have to - technically as I was a close contact of a confirmed case I only needed to "restrict my movements" but I did not want to risk spreading the virus to others if I did have it. So I isolated insofar as possible. Did I contract the virus? I don't know. I didn't have symptoms.

Semantics - people in the US ARE relatively back to normal - they indeed are back in the office and can travel around the country. get your facts straight

TobyHolmes

Tazz T wrote: »

No context there at all or relevance to my statements. i too have friends in the states. They say no restrictions for months. Some states no masks even. Many making plans to travel to Europe as early as next month since that's when flights can start.

My memory is not good regarding 'rampage'. Again, i said there will be no rampage. this is over next month. end of. done. gone. Just all the damage from government policy that won't be lifted for months. No one cares about your two week isolation rampage. What's your point in mentioning it?

yes exactly. We are not fools and we all have friends/family in other countries and can see/hear for ourselves what are they up to. we dont need people on here gaslighting us telling us its not true because it suits their narrative.

beggars_bush

I'm glad these countries have been added

I expect most of them to be removed by the summer once vaccinations have increased

hmmm

TobyHolmes wrote: »

Semantics - people in the US ARE relatively back to normal - they indeed are back in the office and can travel around the country. get your facts straight

Many US states are now offering vaccines to everyone over 18. They're about a month away from finishing their vaccination programme for adults, and I see today that Pfizer have applied for authorisation to provide the vaccine to teenagers. I agree they'll be back to (mostly) normal in May/June.

If I was a tourism business in Ireland I would be absolutely hopping right now. We are about to see one of the biggest economic booms for travel ever over the next 6 months, and Ireland has put up the "keep out" sign. If we'd even added a timeline as to when this will be lifted it wouldn't be so bad, but instead this restriction appears to be in place because of a fear of some unspecified future Covid variant.

Donald Trump

Tazz T wrote: »

No context there at all or relevance to my statements. i too have friends in the states. They say no restrictions for months. Some states no masks even. Many making plans to travel to Europe as early as next month since that's when flights can start.

My memory is not good regarding 'rampage'. Again, i said there will be no rampage. this is over next month. end of. done. gone. Just all the damage from government policy that won't be lifted for months. No one cares about your two week isolation rampage. What's your point in mentioning it?

As anticipated, you didn't catch the subtle point which was that I don't know whether I had it. So you set my response up nicely. The reason that I do not know is that I was not tested. Ireland had a blip for literally a couple of weeks and the system could not cope. Close contacts were not getting tested unless they had symptoms. When I was contacted, I was told that even if I had symptoms, that I would likely not be sent for a test unless they became severe because I would have to follow restrictions for the same length of time anyway.


We had that blip when restrictions were in place. And we managed to get on top of it just in time before ICU reached surge capacity. That was where we ended up with restrictions. If it had continued, we would have surpassed capacity.



And some people still don't seem to have the cop on to realise the possible downsides of unrestricted spread? To put it bluntly, the restrictions are needed to protect those people from themselves.

naughtysmurf

Belgium 550.62 / 100,000 = MHQ Netherlands 571.72 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand
France 801.94 / 100,000 = MHQ. Poland 988.81 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand
Italy 489.4 / 100,000 = MHQ Cyprus 618.8 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand

Also grand are Hungary 1117.87, Sweden 739.16, Bulgaria 713.17

So while it may help keep our numbers down, it’s nothing more than political ass covering

The absolute fcuking embarrassment of having to remove Israel after a week must be killing Donnely, I’d actually have more respect for him / them if they went for it full on but they are 12 months too late for that now instead they opt for the half assed & half measured but sure what should I expect from the half wits

What will make most of this go away is the European Digital Green Certificate assuming we sign up, time will tell

TobyHolmes

beggars_bush wrote: »

I'm glad these countries have been added

I expect most of them to be removed by the summer once vaccinations have increased

well we all expected alot of things and we all expected that we would not be in this situation now. but we are


accept that we know nothing and have no idea what life will be like in the summer.

Tazz T

beggars_bush wrote: »

I'm glad these countries have been added

I expect most of them to be removed by the summer once vaccinations have increased

another 'expector'. Why are you glad? Will it make a difference? Why?

And when you say when vaxxs are increased, here or there?

Delusional

Donald Trump

TobyHolmes wrote: »

Semantics - people in the US ARE relatively back to normal - they indeed are back in the office and can travel around the country. get your facts straight

It may depend on the people you know there.



The people whom I know are well educated and work in well-paid jobs which they have been doing remotely since last year. None of them have returned to the office.


The people that you know may be working in different types of jobs.

Tazz T

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Belgium 550.62 / 100,000 = MHQ Netherlands 571.72 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand
France 801.94 / 100,000 = MHQ. Poland 988.81 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand
Italy 489.4 / 100,000 = MHQ Cyprus 618.8 / 100,000 Nah you’re grand

Also grand are Hungary 1117.87, Sweden 739.16, Bulgaria 713.17

So while it may help keep our numbers down, it’s nothing more than political ass covering

The absolute fcuking embarrassment of having to remove Israel after a week must be killing Donnely, I’d actually have more respect for him / them if they went for it full on but they are 12 months too late for that now instead they opt for the half assed & half measured but sure what should I expect from the half wits

What will make most of this go away is the European Digital Green Certificate assuming we sign up, time will tell

the embarrassing thing is there is no rationale at all. and when we refuse to accept the digital cert (which is a cert) we will be dragged over coals by the EU, if not tomorrow...

titan18

Ya, I'd say it's likelier we don't accept that cert thing than we will atm.

Tazz T

Donald Trump wrote: »

It may depend on the people you know there.



The people whom I know are well educated and work in well-paid jobs which they have been doing remotely since last year. None of them have returned to the office.


The people that you know may be working in different types of jobs.

? wtf ?

Micky 32

hmmm wrote: »

Someone in government has decided that the island will need to be shut down for fear of some unspecified new variant which may emerge sometime in the future. I cannot believe that the rest of the cabinet has signed off on this ludicrous policy.

There is no timeline provided as to when this restriction will be lifted. There is no criteria for which countries will be added to the list, at any time you might find a new country added. People who are out of the country (e.g. some of the many foreign workers who contribute greatly to our economy) may not have to pay a huge sum and be forced to quarantine in a hotel for 2 weeks because of an overnight decision.

Irish companies who do work abroad can't send an engineer off to visit one of these countries. A foreign engineer can't visit Ireland.

The chance of the tourism industry recovering once we are all vaccinated is dead.

I don't want to sound dramatic, but a huge decision has been made and there seems to have been very little scrutiny of what has happened. Many of these countries are our biggest trading partners and biggest sources of FDI.

Lets just hope someone in government has a Fr Ted moment like in the episode where he tried to fix a dent in the car with a small hammer and woke up in the middle of the night to his realisation of what he did!

TobyHolmes

hmmm wrote: »

Many US states are now offering vaccines to everyone over 18. They're about a month away from finishing their vaccination programme for adults, and I see today that Pfizer have applied for authorisation to provide the vaccine to teenagers. I agree they'll be back to (mostly) normal in May/June.

If I was a tourism business in Ireland I would be absolutely hopping right now. We are about to see one of the biggest economic booms for travel ever over the next 6 months, and Ireland has put up the "keep out" sign. If we'd even added a timeline as to when this will be lifted it wouldn't be so bad, but instead this restriction appears to be in place because of a fear of some unspecified future Covid variant.

its the no timeline thing that is the kicker. and the nonsensical reasoning for adding some countries and not others. at least provide the reasoning to the public as WE are the ones affected. israel last week and not this week. its a sad road that the government is leading us down. and why in hell did they not do this a year ago. but they do it now - when we are supposed to be turning a corner. it will be another year of this.

titan18

titan18 wrote: »

Ya, I'd say it's likelier we don't accept that cert thing than we will atm.

Yes, having done this at such a late stage it’s hard to see that we will participate in the green cert. meanwhile our neighbours will be jetting off to the USA for their holidays

Donald Trump

hmmm wrote: »

Many US states are now offering vaccines to everyone over 18. They're about a month away from finishing their vaccination programme for adults, and I see today that Pfizer have applied for authorisation to provide the vaccine to teenagers. I agree they'll be back to (mostly) normal in May/June.

If I was a tourism business in Ireland I would be absolutely hopping right now. We are about to see one of the biggest economic booms for travel ever over the next 6 months, and Ireland has put up the "keep out" sign. If we'd even added a timeline as to when this will be lifted it wouldn't be so bad, but instead this restriction appears to be in place because of a fear of some unspecified future Covid variant.

How many US tourists do you think we could be getting in right now if we opened our doors fully to them?


If they come here, they are officially recommended to quarantine for 14 days upon their return.

Tazz T

Micky 32 wrote: »

Lets just hope someone in government has a Fr Ted moment like in the episode where he tried to fix a dent in the car with a small hammer and woke up in the middle of the night to his realisation of what he did!

Best analogy yet

TobyHolmes

TobyHolmes wrote: »

its the no timeline thing that is the kicker. and the nonsensical reasoning for adding some countries and not others. at least provide the reasoning to the public as WE are the ones affected. israel last week and not this week. its a sad road that the government is leading us down. and why in hell did they not do this a year ago. but they do it now - when we are supposed to be turning a corner. it will be another year of this.

I’ve never said this....always given them the benefit of the doubt, even through the financial crisis, as the decisions are hard and they are just people. But, I have to say now that our government is utterly incompetent. This is a farce.....the list of countries, the lack of a timeline, the way they’ve gone about it. An utter shambles

Gael23

Niner leprauchan wrote: »

I personally would wait until most stuff is open again. There's so much to see, be a shame if half of it was closed.

Fingers crossed for the late summer. As much as we are all arguing in this thread, it's just because we all have itchy feet!

Yeah looking at August maybe. My friend is a teacher so he’s off July and August

Donald Trump

Tazz T wrote: »

? wtf ?

The poster appears to think that everyone in the US is back in their office.



That was his confusion when I told him that the people I know are still working from home. I was merely explaining to him that the people that I know may be working in different types of jobs and organisations than the people he knows. If he knows 1, 10, 100 people in the US, then he still shouldn't extrapolate from that small sample to thinking that all offices are open. They are not.

hmmm

Donald Trump wrote: »

How many US tourists do you think we could be getting in right now if we opened our doors fully to them?

No-one is looking for tourists right now. However there is a realistic possibility that the Ireland & the US will be reopened in the second half of the year.

This quarantine thing has no timeline, no published criteria for deciding who goes on the list and who doesn't, and as has been pointed out here by several posters there appears to be no pattern as to which countries are and are not on the list.

If you're even half thinking of going on holidays this year you are going to give Ireland a miss because it looks like we have lost our collective minds and you could end up spending your entire holiday in a Dublin hotel.

Tazz T

Donald Trump wrote: »

How many US tourists do you think we could be getting in right now if we opened our doors fully to them?


If they come here, they are officially recommended to quarantine for 14 days upon their return.

No they're not from next month. They're free to travel to Europe if vaxxed from next month.

But they're not allowed to come here by our gov.

My partner works in tourism. Did. Took US tourists round Ireland until March of last year.

I'm dying to know what you do. Mr Trump. Please indulge me.

I guess it's not pubs, travel, fuelling jets, cheffing....