Social Democrats: people using connecting flights to avoid hotel quarantine will be a real problem

The booking portal for arrivals from 33 red list countries is now available online, with the first passengers due on Friday.

The Health Minister says he's confident it's robust enough to prevent people getting around the rules.

Social Democrats co-leader, Roisin Shortall, says connecting flights are likely to be a big issue:

"The Minister has told us that there are arrangements in place for people who are travelling through second countries and arriving here. If you look at the list of countries- category two countries- where there is a requirement for hotel quarantining, only two of those have direct flights to Ireland, so there will be a need for a good administrative system to ensure that they will be picked up on, and they will be required to quarantine."