Trips south to shops still on offer in North
Booking: Our reporter Louise A NORTHERN tour company is continuing to advertise and sell tickets for shopping trips south of the border, despite Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Non-essential retail shops were forced to close from midnight last night north of the border, as part of the Executive’s latest two-week circuit-breaker lockdown. Nonessential travel is also discouraged. However, shops i n the Republic are expected to be opened from Wednesday, December 2, following a six-week lockdown, though people will be asked to stay in their own counties.
Derry firm GD Tours was criticised yesterday when it emerged it was running trips from Derry to Dublin’s Dundrum Town Centre next Saturday, December 5.
Following a backlash, the tour operator cancelled the trip.
However, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal it was able to book a ticket with McComb’s Coach Travel for a trip from Belfast to Kildare Village on Saturday, December 5.
The coach trip, which cost £25 (€28), picks up shoppers in Belfast, before heading to Lisburn.
The bus is due to leave Belfast at 8am before returning to the Northern capital at 7.30pm. Before booking a ticket online, the Mail rang the tour operator to ask if the trip was still going ahead.
A customer service representative said it would unless the guidance changed.
McComb’s Coach Travel said there were ‘around 15’ people booked on the trip and noted everyone would be socially distanced.
On its website, the travel company was also advertising a trip for an ‘ Exclusive VIP Mid-Week Shopping Tour’ for Wednesday, December 9. This tour was on sale for £25, down from £30.
The website stated: ‘We constantly review the operation of all tours specifically to current guidance that is available to us and may need to cancel or reschedule tours if government guidance requires us to do so.
The travel company did not provide the Mail with a comment last night when contacted. Fine Gael TD for Dublin-Rathdown Neale Richmond criticised the idea of cross-border shopping tours and encouraged people to stay local.
He said: ‘Moving a large amount of people from one part of the island to another at this point is quite simply madness.’
It comes as Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that under Level 3 restrictions, which the Government hopes to move to next week, cross-border travel for shopping will not be permitted.
He declared: ‘We are now under Level 5 restrictions. We hope to move to Level 3 next week. At Level 3, inter- county travel is allowed for work, education and essential purposes, such as medical appointments or caring for elderly relatives or children.
‘That does not cover visiting friends and relatives, shopping or weekends away. Level 3 will not permit inter- county travel of a non- essential nature. That also applies to north-south travel.’
Elsewhere, Professor Gerry Killeen, research chair in applied pathogen ecology at University College Cork, said it is ‘alarming’ to think a busload of shoppers could travel over the border.
Prof. Killeen told the Mail: ‘It is really quite alarming but I think that is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure there have been plenty of people from the Republic going shopping in the North, too.
‘What’s really required is what the Australians call a travel bubble. The border is not an Iron Curtain. People who live in the local community and need to cross it can cross it. Shoppers can’t.’
Prof. Killeen also expressed concerns about people from other Irish counties travelling to Dublin to go shopping. He said: ‘Even if 30% of the population throws caution to the wind, that’s enough to get us back into trouble.’
‘Border is not an Iron Curtain’