Two women arrested for allegedly refusing mandatory hotel quarantine on arrival at Dublin Airport appeared at Tallaght District Court on Saturday afternoon.
The women have been charged with resisting being detained and taken to a quarantine centre under the Health (Amendment) Act 2021, which provides the legal basis for the mandatory quarantine regime for people coming from certain designated areas.
In both cases, the judge set bail conditions as a personal bond of 800 euros, an independent surety of 2,000 euros, and that each woman must turn up once she receives bail and stay in a designated quarantine hotel.
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As part of their bail conditions, the women will remain in the hotel for 14 days unless they receive a negative COVID-19 test after 10 days.
The court heard the women were from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and were abroad to undergo cosmetic surgery.
Kirsty McGrath (30) of St Anthony’s Road, Dublin 8, and Niamh Mulreny (25) of Scarlet Row, Essex Street West, Dublin 2, appeared successively before Judge Miriam Walsh, who imposed similar bail conditions in each case.
When Michael French, the lawyer for Ms Mulraney, said his client had travelled overseas for “breast augmentation or correction surgery”, Judge Walsh said it was “commonly known as breast augmentation”.
The bail application on behalf of the two women was made by Mr French, and was answered by Detective Inspector Luke Lacey of Dublin Airport Police Station.
Inspector Lacey said that despite repeated attempts by officers at Dublin airport on Friday to explain to the women the quarantine laws and the consequences of not complying, they refused. He said their decision not to comply was a conscious one.
Mr French told the court Ms McGrath had two young children and Ms Mulraney had one child and in both cases the women were the sole guardians of the children. Both were living on single parent benefits.
When McGrath’s case came before the court, the defendant told the judge he intended to isolate at home.
He said his clients would challenge the constitutionality of the quarantine law if the matter went to trial.
“It is unjust to take away a woman’s liberty because she comes into the state and you refuse to book a hotel room for her. It will result in children being born without a mother,” Judge Scott said during Ms Mulraney’s hearing, calling what was happening “grossly unfair.”
Inspector Lacey said he went to court because the state was taking the case seriously and there were “extraordinary circumstances” at the time.
“The purpose of this law is to detain people in isolation to prevent the spread of the disease.”
During Mr McGrath’s hearing, Inspector Lacey said it was important that the integrity of the Quarantine Act was maintained.
If McGrath is granted bail without conditions it would make a “mockery” of the law, as the state faces a dangerous new variant of COVID-19.
During Ms Mulraney’s hearing, Mr French said his client had undergone three Covid-19 tests in the past week, the first of which was taken before his Emirates flight from Dublin.
She took a second test before boarding her flight from the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday but was unable to board the flight because she “didn’t have any” the 2,500 euros she was required to pay up front to cover the cost of quarantine on arrival in Dublin.
Mr French said the flight to her cosmetic surgery was “booked as a gift” for his client.
Mr French said it would be difficult for the defendant to comply with her bail conditions and that she was a woman of “financial disadvantage”. Judge Walsh said the defendant was “a woman who had travelled to the UAE to have cosmetic surgery”.
Inspector Lacey questioned the granting of legal aid at the first hearing given that Ms McGrath had travelled overseas for plastic surgery.
But judges in both cases granted legal aid, and Mr French said on Saturday afternoon it would be difficult for his clients to comply with the bail conditions.
If convicted, the women face fines of up to 2,000 euros and/or one month in prison for the crimes they are charged with.
The two cases were adjourned to April 9 at 10:30 a.m.
