Advice against non-essential travel likely to stay into 2022, warns Tánaiste

Government advice against non-essential travel abroad is likely to continue for the rest of this year and into 2022, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has warned.

In a blow to people hoping to take a foreign holiday later this year, he urged people to “forget about non-essential international travel”, unless reliable vaccine passports are developed.

He also said the Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) will be extended into the second quarter of this year because not all services including pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be open by the end of March.

Speaking on Today FM’s The Last Word, Mr Varadkar said: “The strong advice from Government at the moment and for a very long time has been to avoid non-essential travel abroad and I think that advice will most likely stay in place for the duration of the year if not into next year, unless we get to the point where we can develop reliable vaccine passports.”

However, when questioned about the vaccine passports, the Tánaiste said he shouldn’t have used that term because “the science doesn’t stand up for that at the moment”.

He added: “The vaccine passports yet don't stack up scientifically or medically because we just don’t know at this stage what extent vaccines reduce transmission.”

Mr Varadkar said travel between countries with low levels of transmission is more likely before vaccine passports, however that “is a long way away", adding: “For now forget about non-essential international travel, unfortunately.”

In relation to the construction industry, the Tánaiste said there is no guarantee it will reopen on March 5.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said yesterday the Government was working to reopen the sector and he believes it is an essential service that can recommence safely.

“We won’t reopen it unless it is safe to do so,” Mr Varadkar said.

"There is no guarantee that it will reopen on the 5th of March - that’s the position that we would like to be in but the priority is schools.

“Getting schools and childcare back is first the priority then construction. Then we will look at in the run up to the 5th of March in consultation with the CMO how things look...we will be in a better place to know by the end of February.”

Speaking yesterday on RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Claire Byrne, Mr O’Brien said he believes the construction of new homes is essential as each week the sector is closed there is a loss of between 700 and 800 home builds.

Currently, only construction deemed essential, including the provision of social housing, is allowed under Level 5 restrictions.

"The reason that the sector was closed was nothing to do with their own work practices it was to reduce the movement of people,” he said.

"They have been able to operate safely and they have shown that. I am more than confident that we will be able to have the sector fully open from the 5th of March.

“We have some small exemptions at the moment for essential sites and some social housing.

"I want the sector to safely open as soon as possible.”