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Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan has dashed hopes of foreign holidays this year.
He said it was unlikely the restriction on non-essential travel would be lifted by July.
His comments came just hours after Ryanair declared it would ‘restart Europe’s tourism industry’, with 40% of flights back from July.
Dr Holohan added: ‘We think the airlines can facilitate and play a role’ He said Irish citizens should not be making holiday plans amid the risk of potentially bringing coronavirus back into the country.’Our position at the moment, we are advising against all nonessential travel and I don’t envisage that position will have changed within that timeframe, ‘he said in response to a question from the Irish Daily Mail.
Dr Holohan said social distancing on plans would represent a challenge.
I added that the disease is at different stages in different countries and stressed that Ireland does not want to see its citizens going on holiday and bringing the disease back to the country.
‘The current arrangement now is that we recommend against non-essential travel outside of the island, and we don’t want to see Irish people planning to head abroad on holidays and then have to come back into the country where we’re in a position where we might be contemplating some additional restrictions that might have to apply to those people.
‘We don’t want to see people coming here at this moment in time who shouldn’t be coming here.
‘We don’t want to see people who are from this country leaving for non-essential purposes at this moment of time.
‘We think the airlines can facilitate and play a role in helping us in that respect.’ His comments came just hours after Ryanair announced it will operate nearly 1,000 flights per day from July 1, despite indefinite global travel restrictions and warnings from government officials that summer holidays are effectively canceled.
The Ryanair flights include flights out of Dublin to seven destinations across Spain.
Chief executive Eddie Wilson boasted the flights would ‘restart Europe’s tourism industry’.
Ryanair said passengers will have to ask permission to use the lavatory under strict new social distancing rules on flights this summer.
Travelers will also have to pass temperature checks before they board and they will be required to wear face masks or face coverings.
Queuing for the lavatory will be banned, to limit prolonged contact between travelers but ‘access will be made available to individual passengers upon request’, the airline said.
The airline has no plans to leave middle seats empty after boss Michael O’Leary described the proposal as ‘idiotic’ and ‘hopelessly ineffective’.
He said the people were ‘gagging to get out and I think get abroad for the sunshine’.
But consumer groups warned the move could deny hundreds of thousands of passengers their right to a refund while allowing Ryanair to keep hold of millions of euro it would otherwise be forced to pay out.
Under EU laws, passengers are only entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled. Otherwise, they face losing their money or settling for a time-limited voucher for a future flight.
This has been the case even during the coronavirus crisis and has left airlines with an € 8billion bill for refunds, and Ryanair alone facing a backlog of 25million claims since March.
The announcement by Ryanair caused surprise among industry leaders yesterday and came as Health Minister Simon Harris said: ‘We don’t want people to be traveling.
‘As of today the advice is you should not leave the island of Ireland.
‘You shouldn’t be flying out of the country. There is no sign of that public health advice changing anytime soon. ’The Health Minister said all arrivals into the country would be‘ expected ’to undergo a 14-day quarantine.
And he even said that tougher checks at ports and airports may be introduced.
Other airlines say the quarantine requirement has killed off any lingering hope of flights summaring this summer, as few families will want to go on holiday if they are forced to self-isolate for a fortnight on their return.
Mr O’Leary said that Ryanair’s plans would be thwarted if there were ‘some entirely ineffective social distancing measures like leaving middle seats empty because if middle seats are empty we’re not returning to flying at all’.
‘We can’t make money on 66% load factors. Even if you do that, the middle seat doesn’t deliver any social distancing, so it’s kind of an idiotic idea that doesn’t achieve anything anyway, ’he said in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
Asked about Minister Harris’s quarantine announcement, a Ryanair spokesman said: ‘Ryanair is opposed to ineffective non-scientific measures such as a two-week quarantine, which is completely unenforceable and non-science based.
‘To keep Europe flying and healthy we need effective health measures such as monitoring temperatures at airports and wearing face masks on board the aircraft.
‘We urge European governments to roll out effective health measures (such as face masks and temperature controls) that will allow citizens to use trains, tubes and aircraft for work and for holidays while limiting the spread of all viruses.’ paid to passengers who canceled flights that were still flying, the Ryanair spokesman said for non-canceled flights standard terms and conditions apply.
Under the airline’s terms and conditions it says ‘all amounts you pay for flights operated by us (including amounts for optional services) are non-refundable’.
The only exemptions to this is where someone booked to travel dies before the booked flight, or becomes seriously ill and unable to travel.
In a statement, Ryanair said: ‘For any canceled flight, Ryanair is giving customers all of the options set out under EU regulations, including free moves and refunds in the form of cash or vouchers.
Process The process time for cash refunds is taking longer due to the fact we are having to process 10,000 times the usual volume of cancellations and have fewer staff available due to social distancing measures.
Ana Ryanair is offering vouchers and free moves as these are automated and would give customers an alternative. Customers who choose a voucher but don’t redeem it within 12 months may still apply for and obtain a refund after this 12 month period. This also includes partial redemption, as the portion of the unused voucher will be refunded.
‘Customers who choose not to accept a free move or voucher will be refunded in due course, once this unprecedented crisis is over.
‘We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we thank our customers for bearing with us,’ the spokesman said.
Consumers Association of Ireland chief Dermott Jewell said: ‘Everything about this beggars belief, it’s just not good. So realistically what we would hope is that practicalities and fairness would continue to the degree that if an individual consumer is concerned that they should be offered the ability to change their booking to a later date at no cost or be given voucher to the value of your flight particularly in consideration of the fact that they may be entering the country where they will be required to be quarantined. ‘
Fianna Fáil Foreign Affairs spokesman Niall Collins last night described the development as ‘interesting’ given it seemed to be contrary to Government advice on foreign travel.
‘Their [Ryanair] announcement today is interesting given that Government restrictions seem to prohibit foreign travel in the main and there’s a requirement to quarantine for two weeks after returning. ‘Minister of State for European Affairs Helen McEntee said the Government was seeking to put in place measures to make it ‘compulsory’ for people entering the country to give details of where they will be self-isolating and making sure they stick to the measures. She said ‘a number of Government departments’ were examining if they could introduce such measures.
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