Two Dublin women have been charged with refusing to go into hotel quarantine after arriving home from Dubai.

Kirstie McGrath, 30, of St Anthony's Road, Rialto, and Niamh Mulready, 25, of Scarlet Row, Essex Street West, were arrested at Dublin Airport on Friday. They appeared at Tallaght District Court on Saturday, charged with resisting going into mandatory quarantine under the Health Act 2021.

Under the rules, people arriving into the Republic of Ireland from a list of 33 countries deemed to be of high Covid-19 risk or people who land without having recently tested negative for the virus must stay in quarantine for 14 days.

Speaking to the court, garda (Irish police officer) Robbie Barber of Dublin Airport Garda Station said he had been called to Terminal 2 in the airport at 13:00 BST. He told the court he had explained the consequences of not going into quarantine to Ms McGrath. Garda Barber said she had been given a chance to make phone calls and consider the matter, before she was arrested at 14:50 GMT and taken to Ballymun Garda Station. Ms Mulready also received a warning at the airport before being taken into custody.

The women were further remanded in custody with consent for bail.

Insp Luke Lacey of the Airport Garda Station objected to bail, saying it would make a mockery of legislation aimed at protecting the Republic of Ireland from new strains of coronavirus.

The solicitor representing both women said his clients would be challenging the constitutionality of the legislation.

He said that being remanded in custody would be disproportionate given the offence they are charged with carries a maximum prison sentence of one month.

Identical bail conditions were set for both women, with each required to provide €800 (£680), and lodge €500 in cash.

An independent surety of €2,000, of which €1,800 would be in cash and €200 was to be frozen in each of the women's bank accounts, was also required by the court.

Both were required to surrender their passports and submit themselves to state-approved quarantine on their release.

They will be required to stay there for two weeks, although they will be able to leave after 10 days if they can provide a negative PCR test.

The women were remanded to appear at the District Court at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Friday 9 April.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56627605



What on earth were the women doing - leaving their children behind in a pandemic while they travelled nearly 4,000 miles for breast surgery in a country on Ireland's red-list then claiming they knew nothing of the regulations - at some point, they must have been stopped and asked for their COVID test status ....

Well they are Irish.

I object... that’s racist!

Hi

If they could afford the costs of bigger boobs, they can afford the fines and jail sentences.

They should not get any form of legal aid.

It's factual.