A SOUTH East Clare woman living in Milan has raised welcomed the removal of Italy from the list of countries from which visitors must go into Mandatory Hotel Quarantine (MHQ) when they arrive in Ireland.
Rachel Turner, a native of Bridgetown, who has been living and working in Italy for over a decade, said the decision of the Irish government to add Italy to the list for MHQ sent shockwaves through the community, when it was announced last month. She also told The Champion that it had led to an upsurge in anti-Irish sentiment online.

Speaking from Milan this week Rachel said she was very pleased that concerns of the Irish-Italian community had now been listened to and that Italy has been removed from the Irish government’s  red list.

“I am very relieved to know that if in an emergency I can get home though no-one wants to think like that it’s a scary prospect not being able to,” she said. “We are happy to be off the list but the situation of MHQ in Ireland needs to be badly revised. We could easily be back on it if numbers spiked. The conditions in the hotels appalling. I still believe that people should be trusted to self isolate if they are residences. There should be no tourist travel until people have been reunited with home.”