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

I would have thought Donnelly is on firmer ground than Coveney,how can France not be on the list ,if we cannot deny EU citizens unfettered access than just scrap the quarantine rules as they are laughable in their current form.The issue is the government were dragged into these arrangements reluctantly and introduced a dogs dinner of a solution hoping they could brazen it out ,Donnelly obviously has a lower embarrassment threshold than some of the other brass neckers and buckled under questioning.

Hellrazer wrote: »

Its grand - I lost a bet that it would be gone by Xmas - however I do feel that its getting close to being an election soon.

Who to vote?
As long as we don't put SF in and keep FF out we`ll be ok.

The best of a bad lot is probably FG - maybe let them in as a single party government with some independents support and see what happens.

FG with a load of independents. ??
FF had they’re 2nd chance (it’s as if they’re purposefully incompetent)
SF would even be worse (if that’s even imaginable) than FF.

Anyways , sorry in advance for derailing the thread to politics all....

0lddog wrote: »

I dictatorship run by Michael O'Leary is starting to look attractive

O’Leary is pro business
I’d gladly comply if my business could thrive under his leadership

themacattack. wrote: »

like so many things in ireland its to be "seen" to be doing something...while wasting tax payer money and destroying an industry...

Pretty much sums up all our restrictions so far.

Government react to social media outrage to enact policies which quell the social media Furore but do little in terms of disease mitigation.
Social Media outrage is fuelled by a single voiced and ubiquitous mainstream media which is thriving thanks to HSE funding. The rare person who disagrees with the narrative is labelled an extremist.
Mainstream media are fed their stories by NPHET and ISAG and report them without question.
NPHET is a wing of the HSE which is a wing of the government.

We go round and round. At times it's hard to see how we will get out of this.

Micky 32 wrote: »

I’d say a number of years possibly permanently. . The virus can’t be eradicated it’s here to stay so the threat of “””variants “” will always be there. Simon Harris said today the reason for MHQ is because of the threat of variants coming into the country and he has said the government will always follow public health advice . Eventually all countries will be on it, probably by the autumn or end of year.

I come on here for some encouraging or at least insightful news, and then I have to read your posts :P Take it easy Micky, we'll see what happens.

Corholio wrote: »

I come on here for some encouraging or at least insightful news, and then I have to read your posts :P Take it easy Micky, we'll see what happens.

We are kidding ourselves. If people think non essential travelling will resume in the future we’re all going to be disappointed. Unless the virus disappears ( it might but the doomsters think otherwise)not a chance. I also come on here for something encouraging but it’s not there, have you seen anything that with a light at the end of the tunnel? . It’s just doom and gloom whenever you turn on the news, and quarantine is the top agenda arguing about how many countries they can get away with to put on the list.

Looks like France, Germany and Italy definately going on the list.

I’m all for quarantine in the short term. Today isn’t the day to travel but i’d expect as everyone is vaccinated that the measures would ease but it’s going to be always about “ in case a new variant is brought in”

KanyeSouthEast wrote: »

Ok how long is this MHQ for if for example it comes in for European countries? Are we talking weeks? Months? Years? Has anyone in Government answered this?

Why does everyone assume the Government has the answers to a whole bunch unknowns in an evolving situation?

People are just going to have to develop the resilience to accept that nothing is certain one way or another about this until it is effectively eradicated in the Western World.

In all likelihood, our ability to travel around Ireland will open up over the summer and hopefully that will be the last of the new waves of virus. As an island nation we should feel lucky that MHQ will protect us to a greater extent than many continental countries and make the best of that. For all else, E=tough shyt squared.

SusanC10 wrote: »

I think that is an extremely pessimistic opinion.

I am trying to be realistic and feel that it will be realistic to expect to have a family holiday outside of Ireland within the EU in 2022 with no fines or hotel quarantine.

It’s not that it’s pessimistic it’s the impression the government is giving with no road map out of it.

Micky 32 wrote: »

We are kidding ourselves. If people think non essential travelling will resume in the future we’re all going to be disappointed. Unless the virus disappears ( it might but the doomsters think otherwise)not a chance. I also come on here for something encouraging but it’s not there, have you seen anything that with a light at the end of the tunnel? . It’s just doom and gloom whenever you turn on the news, and quarantine is the top agenda arguing about how many countries they can get away with to put on the list.

Looks like France, Germany and Italy definately going on the list.

I’m all for quarantine in the short term. Today isn’t the day to travel but i’d expect as everyone is vaccinated that the measures would ease but it’s going to be always about “ in case a new variant is brought in”

I understand your pessimism, and I agree the MHQ has been a total mess, but from what I understand, this is a short-term measure while people are being vaccinated. Once the bulk of population are vaccinated, it will be lifted. There are huge economic and social pressure to do so - it would be political suicide not to, as well as make no medical sense. I would be very surprised if MHQ was still in place by the start of June.

Something about the mandatory hotel quarantine debate reminds me of the Simpson's Monorail song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM

Father Hernandez wrote: »

"Mandatory, mandatory, mandatory"

You just have to replace Lisa Simpson's question in the school with "What's the point in an extravagant and onerous attempt at biosecuring borders when you share an open land border with a country planning no such thing?"

greenheep wrote: »

Is there anything to stop someone getting a train or connecting flight to a non MHQ country and then flying on to Dublin ?

I believe you are asked if you have been in any of the MHQ countries within the last 14 days, it’s just where you fly from, sure half the places on the list have no direct flights to here.

even if only transiting through one of these countries and even if remaining airside

how does this work in terms of logic to warranty a mandatory quarantine.

embraer170 wrote: »

Start by doing proper controls on those going into home quarantine.

This exactly. My wife's friend lives in Austria and she speaks to her everyday. In her country, the body responsible for hotel/restaurant food safety inspections have been redeployed to check people are quarantining in their homes if required to do so. Absolutely no reason why a similar scheme cannot be rolled out here.