Can I get a refund on my cancelled trip to Ireland?

Q I had planned to go to Ireland on 21 December. However, the prime minister announced the additional travel restrictions and my flight was cancelled the day before. I booked through a company called DiscoverCars. They say that as it was less than 48 hours before travel I was not entitled to a refund. With Covid, do I have any rights?

Bernie S

A Riga in Latvia is a beautiful city and I strongly recommend that you visit the capital when coronavirus restrictions are eased. I mention this because that is also the location of DiscoverCars. As a UK citizen travelling to Ireland, booking through a Latvian intermediary would not be my automatic first choice. I am afraid that as soon as you get embroiled in the tangle of far-flung middlemen who like to compete for your hard-earned money, there is a strong chance that if anything goes awry you will be out of pocket.

The Competition and Markets Authority has said that people in your position should not be financially disadvantaged by sudden government restrictions. While I don’t imagine that this advice from a UK body will cut much ice in Latvia, you are welcome to try. Assume being that the response is negative, you could then ask for a voucher for future use, but again I imagine that the company’s terms will make clear that you have no entitlement. A high-quality travel insurance policy might make good your loss, but in my experience few people bother with cover for short visits within to Ireland.

All I can do is suggest that next time you wish to rent a car in Ireland, you use car rental comparison websites only as a general guide to pricing. Once I have established a rough idea of the cost, I (quaintly) phone a few of the car rental companies at Dublin airport or wherever direct and choose the best quote. And, in these difficult and unpredictable days, I pay on collection rather than saving a few pounds by committing in advance. Sorry I can’t be more optimistic.

Q Do you know the rules of travelling with food to the EU? We’re wondering about dairy, fish, eggs and in particular meat for our dog, who we travel with in our camper.

Sandra D

A The referendum decision to leave the European Union, and the hard Brexit that the UK government has chosen, means that many rules have come into effect for travellers from Great Britain to the EU – and, perhaps unexpectedly, to Northern Ireland. These are not new regulations, but merely rules that were imposed after the foot-and-mouth epidemic two decades ago, and which the UK has chosen to accept as part of its choice to leave the single market and customs union.

The standard rule is: no “POAO”. This stands for Products Of Animal Origin, and the government specifically warns you cannot take food “containing meat or dairy (eg a ham and cheese sandwich) into the EU”. The same applies to Northern Ireland. There is an exemption for powdered infant milk, infant food, and special foods required for medical reasons; they must weigh less than 2kg and be packaged, proprietary brand products.

The rule for fish is easier: travellers are allowed to bring in up to 20kg. Honey, too, is transportable to the European Union or Northern Ireland in quantities of 2kg or less. 

There is an exemption for powdered infant milk, infant food, and special foods required for medical reasons; they must weigh less than 2kg and be packaged, proprietary brand products.The rule for fish is easier: travellers are allowed to bring in up to 20kg. Honey, too, is transportable to the European Union or Northern Ireland in quantities of 2kg or less.

You will, of course, be aware that your pet passport has passed its use-by date with the ending of the Brexit transition phase and that for every subsequent visit you will need to get a vet to issue an Animal Health Certificate within 10 days of your departure – costing around £100 per trip.

Q What is your honest opinion of the government’s new “test before travel” plan, which you wrote about yesterday?

John G

A Last week the government confirmed some of the details of its “test before travel” initiative. From some day soon, which I predict to be Monday 18 January, all travellers intending to reach the UK by air, rail or sea will need to be tested within the 72 hours before departure. They will be required to produce an approved certificate showing a negative result before being allowed to board the plane, train or ship.

The aim, of course, is to minimise the chance that coronavirus will be brought in from abroad. Most other major countries already have a similar requirement – either for all travellers or only for those from some nations, such as Ireland’s stipulation of testing for arrivals from the UK or South Africa.

My view is broadly aligned with that of the airports, who have been calling for something like this since April 2020. They believe that a properly structured testing programme can eliminate the need for either travel bans or for quarantine.

But ministers in the UK insist that the test is in addition to 10 days of self-isolation (which can be reduced in England by taking a test after five days).

Many people will insist that such a belt and braces approach is exactly what is needed given the extremely high level of infections and Covid related deaths in the UK. I think that when numbers begin to fall, the combination will be seen as disproportionate. The great advantage of certificated testing before travel is that the “success” rate should be very high: with the system policed by transport operators abroad, no one can dodge the need to produce medical evidence of being free of the virus at the time of testing.

In contrast, the quarantine system in the UK is open to abuse: there appear to be very few checks and penalties for non-compliance, even though it is clear that many people have flouted the rules since they were introduced in June 2020.

While the prospect of 100 per cent elimination of imported cases is unattainable, the new system should allow travel to restart at scale. An additional test on arrival could provide further confidence. But “test, travel, self-isolate” amounts to a ban for all but the most dedicated or distressed travellers.

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