Two women who refused to enter mandatory hotel quarantine during Covid, following a trip to Dubai, have lost their Supreme Court appeal against the regulation.
Mother-of-one Niamh Mulreany, 27, and mother-of-two Kirstie McGrath still face criminal charges for the alleged offence.
They initially claimed to have travelled for breast-enhancement surgery but it later emerged they did not have that procedure.
Supreme Court judge Aileen Donnelly ruled yesterday that their arguments to her court were ‘wafer thin’.
She said the pair had gone on holiday to Dubai in March 2021, two days after the Health Minister designated the UAE and 32 other states as areas which presented a high risk for importing Covid.
Niamh Mulreany and Kirstie McGrath were detained in prison when they refused to quarantine after returning to Ireland from Dubai on April 2, 2021
Kirstie McGrath pictured leaving the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin
The new section in the Health Act provided for a ten-to-14-day mandatory quarantine in a designated facility for those arriving from such countries.
On their return on Good Friday, April 2, the judge said, they refused to go to the designated hotel to quarantine.
Ms Mulreany, of Scarlett Row, Essex Street West, Dublin, and Ms McGrath, of St Anthony’s Road, Rialto, claimed they could not afford the cost of the stay, estimated at over €1,800 each, and that they needed to get back to their children.
The women were arrested and charged with resisting the quarantine and were remanded in custody.
After a night in prison, they were released on bail and subsequently completed the mandatory quarantine, the judge said.
Judge Donnelly said the charges were still existing and the two women had applied for a prohibition of their trials, which was refused by the High Court. Their legal challenge travelled directly to the Supreme Court.
They had also applied for a review of their quarantine confinement to the Designated Appeals Officer but it was refused, the judge noted.
Kirsty McGrath appearing at Tallaght district court on Saturday, April 3, 2021
Niamh Mulreany appearing at Tallaght district court on Saturday, April 3, 2021
Mulreany (left) and McGrath (right) still face criminal charges for the alleged offence
Their appeal to the Supreme Court was based upon the procedures through which the UAE was designated as a high-risk state.
They claimed that the restriction of their liberty should have been carried out through legislation, rather than by a direction of the minister, and should have been overseen by the Oireachtas.
They also mounted a separate claim regarding the legality of the review mechanism.
The State responded that there was nothing unlawful or unconstitutional about the delegation of the power to the minister to make a designation, as opposed to making regulations.
In her judgment yesterday, supported unanimously by four other Supreme Court judges, Judge Donnelly held that the selection of the UAE as a designated state was lawful.
If convicted following their trial, the women face fines of up to €2,000 and a period of several months’ imprisonment.
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