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The government is urged to tone down its advice against nonessential air travel this Christmas and allow the Irish to return home by providing affordable Covid tests at airports.
The Oireachtas Transport Committee of TD and Senators said the Government should take a new approach to the EU’s Covid traffic light system and subsidize PCR testing at Irish airports to reduce the cost to € 50 or less.
The committee wants the government to work with airports to increase PCR testing for pre-departure travelers to designated ‘orange’ regions under the guidance of traffic lights and also strengthen the current regime for testing individuals who have arrived five days after flying from the ‘red regions.
But it wants the government to go further by insisting that passengers from the ‘orange’ and ‘red’ regions must obtain a negative test for Covid performed three days before departure, meaning they should not face travel restrictions when get here.
As for non-EU countries, like the US and Canada, where there is no current travel light warning system, the committee urges the government to sign bilateral agreements immediately so that the Irish can return. home for Christmas, said its president, Kieran of Fine Gael. O’Donnell.
Subsidies will be required for PCR testing because airports face historic financial losses from the Covid crisis.
The owner of Dublin and Cork airports, Daa, has indicated that it will lose more than 150 million euros this year in all its businesses, which include important international operations. Regional airports – Kerry, Ireland West and Donegal – are also likely heading for record losses as airlines have canceled many routes during the pandemic.
In addition, the committee said the focus on testing should mean that the government “proactively engages” with other European countries to validate rapid antigen tests, which it says could play an important role in helping the recovery of antigens. safe air travel next year.
The main report follows his extensive consultations with airports, unions, airline personnel, as well as Transport Minister Eamon Ryan and Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan, but appears to reject the officials’ health advice that the Irish think twice before traveling for Christmas.
Citing recent research by European health experts, O’Donnell said that air travel was relatively less risky than spreading the disease in the community, but that the risk that applies to air travel could be addressed by introducing a regimen. solid and common testing for both. countries ‘orange’ and ‘red’.
Some of the recommendations were controversial, but they were based on empirical work, O’Donnell said.
“We believe that what we are proposing is safe; it provides a situation where people on an airplane will know that all other passengers test negative, “O’Donnell said.
On support for airports, the committee wants the government to expand a discount scheme and to secure funding for routes and EU approval under state aid rules.
He wants the wage subsidy plan to be applied to all kinds of tourism businesses next year and for the national aviation policy to “accelerate.”
He also wants airport funding running through 2025 to ask Shannon and Cork airports for capital and operating expenses and reestablish what he calls “a CIE model” for the three main airports that would put Shannon, Cork and Dublin back under the same state body.
Airports and the Fórsa union said they welcomed the recommendations.
Cork Airport Managing Director Niall MacCarthy said he particularly appreciated the recommendations on the development of rapid antigen tests.
“Dublin and Cork airports are at the heart of an aviation ecosystem that is vital to the Irish economy and that ecosystem has been devastated by the impact of Covid-19 this year,” said Daa CEO Dalton Philips.
He said Eurocontrol figures on air traffic control in 41 European states show that “Ireland’s connectivity has been among the most damaged during the pandemic.”
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