Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will end on a note about e-health. We as a nation are going to go so far in the coming weeks. There is a bit of an unknown here but the details are starting to come from the European Commission. We are going to have an e-health system that will probably be on our phones. It might be like what we saw a few weeks ago on the "Prime Time" special. We saw a little snippet of people going around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel with little digital certificates on their phones that acted as their passports for entry into cinemas, pubs and restaurants. If we are going the whole hog of having a digital system in place to allow people to present themselves at an airport departure gate, would the Department consider operating that system, which will be up and running, in certain contexts around the country, for example, to allow people to go to matches, concerts, weddings and venues in which large numbers of people will congregate? If we have the system in place, will we give it a dual purpose and use it on the domestic front as well as at the airport departure gate? Israel and some other countries have done that. If we are going the whole hog on software, smart and e-health infrastructure, it would be great if we could use the device in our pockets to gain entry to a place. Has there been any talk within the Department of a deeper role for that technology in the months ahead?