Analysis: Cabinet stops short of mandatory quarantine for all

While anyone arriving from South Africa or Brazil or without a negative Covid test will be subject to a 14-day hotel quarantine, a softer system will be applied to everyone else

Taoiseach Micheál Martin: ‘The truth is that there is no easy way through this pandemic, or out of it’

There has been another big shift in Covid-19 policy with the introduction of a system of “mandatory quarantine lite”.

For the past year, there was intense opposition to the notion of any type of mandatory quarantine at all among senior officials and ministers for two reasons. One was that it might damage Ireland’s island economy which needs people flying in and out to function. The other was that it would be pointless when there was ...