Government announces Green List of countries that can be travelled to without the need for Covid-19 quarantine

While the official advice remains "holiday at home", the Government has published its controversial Green List of countries that can be travelled to from Ireland without quarantine measures being required at either end. They are Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino, which all have very similar Covid-19 infection rates to ourselves. A notable absentee from the list is the UK, which is still considered to be too-at-risk to be exempt from the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.

This hasn't gone down well with the country's main provider of flights to the UK, Ryanair, who reflect: "The Green List rules are very simple: visitors from the UK to Ireland must quarantine... unless you travel through Northern Ireland, magically bypassing the rules."

Another arch response to the Green List announcement comes from Vincent Browne who says: "It is recommended you don’t murder anybody. But if you insist, murdering the following victims are permitted (cabinet yet to finalise the list - there is disagreement on the last 25)."

In a similar vein, former Rose of Tralee, Brianne Parkins, messages: "Heard the Green List debacle described as 'Official advice, we're telling you not to go but reminding you to buy sun cream.'"

Observes writer-producer Colm Toibin: "35 new cases. Feck off with your green list. How about a Stay The Fuck At Home list?"

The Operations Director with Irish travel insurance provider Getcover.ie, David Hughes, says the announcement raises as many questions as it provides answers.

“It appears as though the statement surrounding the Green List was made without preparing the necessary supporting guidance and advice," he says. "We are currently in discussions with our underwriters and have contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs for guidance. We hope that clarity on this situation will be provided ASAP.
“There is also a lot of confusion around actually getting to destinations on the Green List," he continues. "Monaco is listed, yet France isn’t. To get to Monaco one must fly to France, as in Nice. Is it therefore possible to actually travel to Monaco? Likewise for Gibraltar. There are no direct flights from Ireland to Gibraltar. One would need to travel via Spain”.

Liz Canavan of the Dept of the Taoiseach says the overarching advice on overseas travel is that staying at home is still the safest thing to do | More: https://t.co/8GPNDxbr51 pic.twitter.com/DHS9BtipO4

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 22, 2020