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Can I go on holiday outside of Ireland now?
Well, we wouldn’t be packing our bag of shorts and t-shirts and shopping for sunscreen just yet if we were you. While there has been some movement, or at least the promise of some movement, as to where we could travel, as things stand, there are still significant restrictions when it comes to travel abroad. And we still don’t really know if we’re going or we’re going.
But I thought this week was supposed to be when the world opened up to us.
Certainly there has been talk of that in recent weeks, but when Taoiseach Micheál Martin laid out on Tuesday morning the government’s medium-term plan to Live with Covid-19, it began to become clear that the opening of the country is only going to happen. slowly. We have a long, long way to go before we’re close to getting back to where we were last year.
What do you mean?
Well, for starters, the Government’s so-called “green list” of countries, the places where people can visit without facing significant movement restrictions upon their return, won’t be updated until next Monday.
Monday isn’t very far, I guess. Will there be many more countries on the new list?
Yes. And not. Mostly not, to be honest with you. There are some countries that will be added to the green list next week, but there are also some countries that will be removed. At the end of the day, the number of countries that we will be able to visit with the go-ahead from the Department of Foreign Affairs will be only slightly longer than it is today.
Okay, so give me the good news first.
You are right. Six new countries are likely to be added to the green list next week. They are, in no particular order, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Iceland, Cyprus and Liechtenstein. Meanwhile, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia will remain on the green list.
And the bad news?
There are likely five countries currently on the list that will be removed as the incidence of Covid-19 in each of them has increased. Those countries are Italy, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia and Norway.
Wait, who decides which countries are on the list anyway?
The way things are going to work starting Monday is that the green list will be updated weekly and will feature countries with a 14-day Covid-19 incidence of less than 25 people per 100,000 inhabitants. The data used will come from the European Center for Disease Control.
Weekly? What if I am in Greece or Italy and that country suddenly disappears from the list?
That is a concern for sure. As it stands, travelers returning from countries that were on the green list for a week and then withdrew will have to restrict their movements upon return.
And will we get these updates on Mondays?
Actually we will get the updates on Thursday and then the update will go into effect on Monday. So if you’re in the market for a trip, Thursdays will be the days to see.
Are we encouraged to travel to the new green list countries now?
No. Official advice remains that it is probably best to avoid travel abroad for now, as the pandemic is still far from under control, but the security status of countries on the green list will change in the Department of Foreign Affairs. (DFA). website and move from “avoid non-essential travel” to “normal precautions”.
Is that DFA security status important?
It certainly is. The DFA has four categories of travel advice: “normal precautions”, “high degree of caution”, “avoid non-essential travel” and “do not travel”. Since March, the world outside of Ireland has been classified as ‘avoiding non-essential travel’, so for the countries on the list this is a big change and, all things being equal, it should mean that people traveling there will still have the protection offered. to them through travel insurance.
What do you mean by that?
As it stands, anyone who travels to a country against official advice invalidates any travel insurance they have, so at least now anyone who goes to Germany will be covered by their travel insurance.
So is the green list likely to be with us in the long term?
No, far from that in fact. We will likely have the list for a little over a month. After that, and all goes well, the list will be replaced by an EU-wide traffic light system.
What is that?
With the new system, which has not yet been designed, the green-colored countries will cover territories where the number of cases is less than 25 per 100,000 inhabitants over a period of 14 days and where the percentage of positive tests is less than 3% . . Countries will be orange if they have less than 50 boxes per 100,000. Countries will appear in red if they exceed that number of cases.
And to which countries will I be able to travel?
It appears that the countries on the green and amber lists will be open to Irish passengers. People traveling from red countries will have to self-quarantine for 14 days after their return or they will have to be tested for Covid-19 to prove they are negative.
Which countries are likely to remain off limits?
Right now, only a handful of EU countries, including Hungary, Romania, Croatia, France and Spain, will remain largely inaccessible to the Irish in the coming weeks based on current Covid-19 case numbers.
When will the traffic light system be ready?
The precise details of the EU traffic light system will be agreed at a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers on 15 October.
How has the news of the changes been received?
Warm is probably the best way to describe the answer so far. The head of the Irish Travel Agents Association, Pat Dawson, has expressed disappointment at the ad, calling it “tasteless”.
Wishy washy?
Yes. He said “there was not much more clarity today than yesterday,” and suggested that the government “had just kicked the road until mid-October, when the EU rules will be finalized.”
Anything else?
Well, at least one airline was pleased with the announcement. In a statement, Aer Lingus said it had taken note of the government’s announcement of its intention to implement the coordinated approach proposed by the European Commission for travel within the European Union, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. “The commission’s recommendation represents a sensible approach to allow international travel safely. We look forward to the early and full implementation of the approach recommended by the commission. “
But this is all other counties and their color coding. What if Ireland is on the red list?
Indeed? It is certainly very possible. At the time of writing this article, the rate of Covid-19 in this country was hovering around the 50 mark. If it continues to rise, all the talks about opening up the EU to Irish travelers will be moot, as we won’t be They will let you in anywhere else, or at least we won’t without quarantining ourselves, which will make all exercise a bit pointless. Although we would at least have some element of control and if we collectively manage to control the spread of the disease, then we could all travel with an advantage.
Tell me one more thing. All the focus is on the EU. But what about other countries?
Indeed? We have posed this question to the Government and asked why people apparently cannot travel to countries in other parts of the planet where the Covid-10 rate is very low and we have not yet had a satisfactory answer, or indeed none. It is probably fair to say that the authorities are taking a very slow approach to travel abroad.
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