Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The principle is already enshrined in the regulations in terms of being exempt from mandatory hotel quarantine and being able move to home quarantine, for example, if you can show you are fully vaccinated. The EU digital green certificate is built on the exact premise that there are things you can do because you pose less of a risk to other people. It is less about protecting the individual and more about protecting other people from international travel.

There is a philosophical question to be discussed when it comes to applying similar measures in a domestic setting. I would be interested to get the committee's view on that. Is it right or proper to discriminate in terms of access to domestic services, whether that is, as the Deputy said, a concert or something else, based on whether somebody is vaccinated? There are strongly held views on both sides of that argument. I would be interested to get a view from the committee, if it were to discuss the matter. The same question would have to be applied to the legality of creating different levels of access for people based on the situation the Deputy has described.