Professor Gabriel Scally says Ireland's new mandatory hotel quarantine laws are only a 'half-door measure'.
The Dáil yesterday passed legislation that will force people arriving from 20 high-risk countries to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks.
A Labour amendment to extend it to all countries was defeated.
Professor Scally says he would also prefer hotel quarantine for all arrivals.
"It’s half-closing the stable door isn't it, it's a half door measure."
"Because you can't be sure that other people aren't coming in or that people are taking roundabout routes to get into Ireland."
"So it's a partial measure, it's better than nothing and my preference I think would still be for managed isolation for everyone coming into the country for a period of 14 days."
Labour Says 20 Isn't Going To Cut It
The Labour Party says having just twenty countries on the mandatory hotel quarantine list is "not going to cut it".
Deputy Aodhan O'Riordain says the list needs to be more comprehensive.
"There is a level of support for this idea of us taking this very serious measure for a specific period of time."
"The virus moves from country to country, the idea that we’d have 20 countries and that’d be it doesn't make much sense to us"
"We wanted it to be much more comprehensive."
20 Is Better Than 0, But All Is Better Than 20
Mr Scally says people will try to avoid mandatory hotel quarantine in Ireland, by travelling here through a 'safe' country.
TDs yesterday passed legislation that will force people to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks, if they arrive from 20 high-risk countries.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says the list could be added to, but Labour's amendment to extend it to all countries was rejected.
Professor Scally says he favours that approach.
"My personal preference would be to stop all people coming into the country and make sure that they all underwent a proper quarantine period of 14-days."
"That is the only safe way to deal with the matter."
"20 countries is better than zero countries.
"But I do worry about the ability of people to find routes to Ireland, that avoid the restrictions by coming in from somewhere else."
