Fly me to the Moon - your 3rd travel Megathread - read OP

Apologies in advance if i have posted this twitter link incorrectly.

Straight from the "horses mouth " last night when called out about it on Primetime.

"Still picks up a lot " ... madness.

Nope you don't. It was laid bare to Donnelly how silly it was last night the very scenario of someone getting a test on a thursday, going to the UK that evening and coming back Saturday and doing what they want over there while getting the test here pre departure. He said yes that's possible, only has to be 48hrs for antigen and 72hrs for PCR. Doesn't matter where it's taken.

Doubt it, sounds like it'll be in it when the regulations are signed in. All they care about is the validity of the test in the timeframe. It's window dressing

It's pointless and it was put at him and he kind of just smiled and nodded without answering the question and then rattled on about being in favour of anitgen tests for a long time

I think that’s exactly the point - people do have family / work commitments. It’s also the run into Christmas. If you’re travelling back after 15th December and happen to test positive, that’s Christmas in Ireland gone. That will put a lot of people off.

There was a group of 4 of us going away next Thursday to Sunday. Now just two of us are going after yesterday’s announcement. The two that are going will bring our work laptops with us, should we get stuck we can work away where we are, the others don’t have that luxury.

While doing very little from stopping the import of the virus, it does a massive amount to people’s plans and confidence to travel.

I understand people are nervous traveling in Covid times but the chances of someone contracting the virus - assuming all reasonable precautions are taken (masks, sanitizer, washing, distance) - and it showing up in a antigen test taken 2 days after arrival on a 4 day trip (or 48hrs before departure) are quite minuscule. You could even take a PCR 72hrs before departure which would leave 1 day to get infected and incubate it sufficiently for it to be detectable.

Like the example I posted above: the Israeli doctor was at conference in the UK, tested negative pre-departure, tested negative again post-arrival and only tested positive once symptoms came on days later. i understand it's not 100% but very few things are in life are... you could go on a holiday, get kidney stones/appendicitis/hit by a car and have to spend days in a hospital.

everybody has different risk tolerances but i'd consider a 4 day trip as extremely low risk

Can I just confirm if I am flying into Dublin Friday night that I need to have taken an antigen test. On the radio this morning, they said the new rules were coming in at midnight Friday. (I assume they meant 12:01am Friday as opposed to midnight friday night).

Correct 12.01am Friday morning, as usual , bad communication by our government departments.

That is a really good question

Bring Antigen tests with you perhaps.

It gets better.

I was due to be over at the London office from 12-17 December. I did what was asked, got the double vax and my cert. Decided not to chance it as if I was to catch it I’d be stuck in a hotel till Stephen’s Day.

Brother in law got Covid 3 weeks ago, he’s grand to fly over for the same week (different company) and no test required on return just shows his positive result note as that’s valid for 180 days.

So although both of us can still get Covid and pass it on, the guy with the double vax and cert has travel restrictions, the one who had Covid 3 weeks ago is happy out

I’m genuinely starting to think that NPHET and those spoofer in government just pull random restriction out of a hat!

hopefully when I have to go over in January I’ll pick it up so I get a 6 month travel pass in the form of a positive test result!

Rant over but still fuming!