Court rules woman in quarantine is being detained lawfully

The High Court has ruled that a South African woman who challenged her detention in hotel quarantine is being detained lawfully.

Mr Justice Brian O'Moore said he had come to the view that the legislation being challenged on her behalf did not breach the Constitution.

Charlene Heyns has been in hotel quarantine since arriving back from South Africa on 9 April.

She is due to have a Covid-19 test on Monday and if it is negative she will be released.

Ms Heyns had challenged the way the hotel quarantine system is being implemented.

Her lawyers said account should be taken of the fact that she has previously had Covid-19 and has had one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. They suggest this puts her in a similar position to a fully vaccinated person.

Ms Heyns' Senior Counsel, Conor Power, also told the court the categories of people caught by mandatory hotel quarantine were too broad and there was no provision for people's individual medical circumstances to be taken into account.

He also said the quarantine was a form of civil detention without the proper safeguards for a detained person, such as a review of detention being carried out by a suitably qualified person.

This morning, lawyers for the State said Ms Heyns' right to liberty was competing with the rights of citizens who had chosen not to travel abroad.

Senior Counsel Michael Cush told the court they had the right to life and to bodily integrity, the right not to be exposed to any infection from which they might die or which might cause significant illness.

He said they had the right not to be subjected to interminable lockdowns and the right to go back to work in a functioning society.

Mr Cush said the quarantine scheme was a proportionate response - given the objectives of the legislation to deal with a serious risk to public health, the threat to the effectiveness of vaccines, the impact on the health system and on society and the economy.

He also told the court that the scheme was triggered by voluntary actions on the part of travellers. He said he was not criticising Ms Heyns, but she had chosen to travel to South Africa for medical assistance at a time when the South African variant of Covid-19 was a matter of huge concern to public health authorities here.

He said an appeals officer deciding on her appeal against being in quarantine could not take into account individual issues such as her prior infection and vaccination status.

By doing so, he said they would be second guessing the Minister for Health, who acts on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer.

The issue of prior infection and what effect that might have on a person's immunity and suitability for hotel quarantine, was being looked at but no decision had yet been made, he said.

Mr Cush said 319 appeals against quarantine had been made since the scheme was introduced last month and 22 such appeals had resulted in people being released from quarantine.