Mandatory hotel quarantine in Ireland will come into force this Friday, with the booking portal going live this morning.
The cost for an incoming passenger coming from one of 33 designated states is €1,875 for 12 nights.
The rules will also apply to any passenger who arrives into the State without the required negative PCR test for Covid-19.
The day rate for those passengers will be €150.
The service provider – Tifco Hotel Group – will provide full board accommodation, along with transportation, security, health and well-being services.
The first facility that will be available to receive arriving passengers is the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel in Santry.
However, the Tifco Hotel Group has committed to making as many rooms available as required.
The Department of Health said that when it comes to transportation, the Defence Forces will oversee the process, but members will escort the bus rather than drive it.
The Minister for Health said the Defence Forces will be the State liaison officers for the passengers, but day-to-day care will be provided by the hotel group.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Stephen Donnelly also said the Defence Forces will not be involved in the everyday security or care of passengers.
The Tifco Hotel Group will have a licensed security contractor at each facility, but gardaà are said to be “available as a point of escalation in response to any such incidents”.
The bill for staying in mandatory hotel #quarantine in Ireland from Friday @rtenewspic.twitter.com/Ounf7JzfLO
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Mr Donnelly said gardaà will be called in if a traveller decides to leave the hotel before their quarantine is completed.
He said that the default position will be for gardaà to return the person to the hotel, but this will be an operational matter for gardaÃ.
Minister Donnelly said that if a traveller wants to leave their hotel room for some fresh air, they will be escorted by someone from the hotel.
He said once travellers have a negative PCR test, they will be allowed to leave their room up to three times a day for fresh air.
The minister said that a PCR test will be administered on the day they arrive and travellers should have a result by the next day.
He said that there will be private security in the hotel, but there should not be too much interaction between staff and travellers.
The minister also outlined the process that any affected passengers will experience.
He said they will be told to remain on the plane after it lands and will be met by the border management unit in a separate area in the airport.
Once they have completed the necessary paperwork, they will then be brought by officials to collect their bags before they are taken to a hotel.
Minister Donnelly said that those passengers who arrive from a country that is not a Category 2 country without a negative PCR test will be allowed to home quarantine once they have had a clear PCR result.Â
He said the purpose of quarantine is to act as a deterrent and that England found an 80% reduction in incoming travel in the first week of introducing quarantine.
Social Democrats co-leader RóisÃn Shortall said that the State must have a key role in the operation of the system, overseeing security, ventilation, access to health services, and Covid-19 testing at the hotels.
Speaking on the same programme, she said that the role of the Defence Forces needs to include the training and supervision of the security contractors who are operating at the hotels.
She said that the Department of Health must ensure those quarantining have access to a GP or health services onsite and to onsite testing.
Ms Shortall added that ventilation is another issue that needs to be managed to ensure that hotels themselves do not become places that facilitate the transmission of the virus.
She said the new system is “far from a solution to the issue of travel”, given the danger of importing new strains of the virus and it should have happened nine months ago.
The Dublin North-West TD said that many incoming travellers are still coming into Ireland for non-essential reasons and will not be affected by new arrangements.
There are 33 countries, mainly in Africa and South America, on the Government’s Category 2 list of “high risk” countries.
Brazil and South Africa were the first two nations designated as high risk on 5 February, with 18 states added to the list on 12 February.
They were: Angola, Austria, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela were added to the list at the end of February.
Mr Donnelly said the reason the UK is not on the list of 33 countries is because the variant first detected in the UK is already transmitting in Ireland.Â
Meanwhile, the Garda Representative Association has said its members need to be vaccinated after the most vulnerable people have been vaccinated, as they continue to be placed in high-risk situations on the frontline, including potential exposure to infection at mandatory quarantine hotels.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, GRA Vice president Brendan O’Connor said gardaà feel let down as they have “played an essential role to date” in policing the pandemic.
He said that while gardaà will have a limited role in policing mandatory quarantine hotels, garda members at airport immigration are the first point of contact for those arriving into the country.
Mr O’Connor said the people placed in quarantine are considered high-risk so any intervention at the hotels will lead to gardaà being dispatched without vaccines.
He said: “we have to be given vaccinations to protect the people we interact with and the gardaà themselves.”
Mr O’Connor said that members of the force are in many high-risk scenarios and have not been vaccinated unlike other frontline colleagues.
