OPINION: Govt needs to get a grip on Covid-19 messaging... We've too much to lose

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said he has not ruled out mandatory testing for people travelling to Ireland from countries who are seen as high risk for the coronavirus.

Mr Varadkar said is not sure if mandatory testing is practicable, but he does think that Ireland needs to consider, as other countries have done, testing of people who are not on the 'green list'.

There is nowhere more high risk presently than the US. And it's clear that some sort of decisive intervention needs to be made to ensure we are not exposed to Covid from overseas visitors.

Even many of the American callers to Liveline today (Tuesday) were of the belief that travel inwards from the US should be curtailed. As an island nation dependent on tourism - a sector already devastated by the pandemic - the thought of us turning tail on our reputation for being the land of a thousand welcomes is chilling.

For countries not on the 'Green list' or 'A list', the Government is "examining the possibility of bringing in random testing or testing in some cases as other countries have done because we know that mandatory quarantine is not possible in Ireland," says Varadkar.

He said mandatory quarantine would not be legally sound and "we've seen for example in Australia it worked out very badly where the hotels where people have been detained have turned out to be clusters or sources of infections themselves".

It's not plausible or practical to expect visitors from the US to hole themselves up in a B&B for a fortnight feeling an icy front from locals along the Wild Atlantic Way before starting a holiday.

Testing and a thoroughly rigid contact tracing system must be put in place at all points of entry to Ireland. We can't close out borders but we have to get smarter in being able to isolate and locate potential cases of Covid -19 immediately.

Another part of the problem now is message fatigue and perceptions in that nobody seems to know where they stand anymore. Our sporting organisations have resumed activity and are running military-like procedures in ensuring safety of players, coaches and members.

Only this week we heard of a case of player who travelled from overseas to join up with his club team that resulted in the shutdown of two clubs for 48 hours. Reinforcement messages from the GAA and LGFA were issued through county boards to warn members about overseas travel and the need to isolate for 14 days on return.

There's no ambiguity there and yet we now have visions of 200-odd Texans - one of America's biggest Covid hotspots - disembarking from a plane in Shannon to scatter to the southwest of Ireland on their jollies.

Our approach to beating this bloody virus needs to be cohesive and consistent. Our Government leaders need to regain control of the central message here and ensure we don't fall backwards. There's too much to lose.

*Opinion piece first published in Tuesday's paper