COVID-infected tourists are boarding planes to Ireland after getting substandard PCR tests abroad that are failing to detect the virus, a senior Government source said. Responding to the numbers of those testing positive within hours of landing here, a source familiar with the Government’s COVID policy said: ‘They may as well be arriving here and telling us they have an ice cream.’ The revelation comes after the Health Service Executive released information which revealed that, in the fortnight leading up to the ban on non-essential travel to Europe being lifted on Monday, there were 800 COVID cases linked to travel. And 317 were among people travelling back and forth from Spain.