Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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2292. To ask the Minister for Health if a young person returning home from New York after completing a graduate internship could have the costs of their mandatory hotel quarantine covered by the State (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20455/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Act 1947, as amended, provides that all persons arriving in Ireland from a designated state, or having travelled through a designated state in the previous 14 days, are required to undergo mandatory quarantine in a designated facility unless they are an exempted traveller under the Act. All applicable travellers must reserve and pay for a place in mandatory hotel quarantine.

The Health (Amendment) Act 2021 identifies those who are exempt from mandatory hotel quarantine and a full list of exemptions can be accessed on gov.ie/quarantine. This now includes persons fully vaccinated with a European Medicines Agency approved vaccine.

The provisions of the Act also allows for travellers to request a review of decisions relating to their quarantine; however this can only be undertaken once quarantine has begun.

In some limited circumstances such as the emergency repatriation of Irish citizens abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs may be able to advise or provide assistance to such citizens when they are arranging their stay in a mandatory quarantine designated facility. Such persons should contact their local embassy or mission in such emergency situations.

I understand that my colleague the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is establishing a refund mechanism for students returning from Erasmus programmes who are required to undergo mandatory quarantine in a designated facility.

The Government continues to evaluate wider policy on international travel as informed by the epidemiological situation and public health advice, including the possibility of future exemptions.

Neither I as Minister for Health nor my Department have a role in decisions relating to whether individual persons must enter mandatory quarantine or whether individual persons are exempted travellers.