An Irish doctor in Australia has voiced his concern after hearing Simon Coveney speaking about quarantine.
Niall Conroy, a consultant in Public Health Medicine in Queensland, was listening to the Minister for Foreign Affairs discuss mandatory hotel quarantining.
The minister said he doesn't believe it is "do-able" to quarantine people who arrive here for 14 days in a designated facility like a hotel.
He added it "could cause more problems than it solves" citing Australia as an example.
Dr Conroy has been an advocate for hotel quarantining and urged Ireland to implement it before it's too late.
The doctor tweeted: "Driving home tonight, REALLY disappointing to hear Simon Coveney talk about mandatory hotel quarantine basically 'making the problem worse' in Oz.
"I doubt he’s been badly briefed. He a sounded like he didn’t believe it himself. Think he was just doing the bidding of big business."
He previously said: "Situation in Oz is a perfect example of why Ireland needs mandatory hotel quarantine for returned travellers.
"Victoria is the one state where MHQ hasn’t been implemented properly and they’re suffering badly, while most of Oz is Covid-free. Why is Ireland CHOOSING to be Victoria??"
Australia has reported a record 501 new coronavirus infections most of which were centred in the state of Victoria and Melbourne in particular.
Victoria has essentially been sealed off from the rest of Australia in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
