Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief because most of the territory has been covered. I welcome our guests and thank them for their interesting and informative contributions. We have had them here on a number of occasions. I hope they will agree that the committee has listened and supported their case. I am very much in favour of reopening the economy. To do so we must reopen airports and allow our people to travel out and others to come in.

I raised the issue of a digital green certificate with the Taoiseach some months ago. At that stage, the Government had set its face against a digital green certificate. I firmly believe that there should be a vaccination dividend and if somebody is fully vaccinated he or she should be allowed the freedom to move around. The analogy I would draw is that somebody who refuses to take a vaccination damages our prospects of recovering from the pandemic. Therefore, the people who are fully vaccinated should be able to travel in a safe way. We, as a country, were reluctant and hesitant about using a digital green certificate. The only reason Ireland is in it is because we were forced into it by the EU. I fear that the Irish Government will drag its heels when it comes to implementation. I ask the witnesses to forward to us the statements they issued to the Government and the Department of Transport on this matter so that we can be aware of what we need to push. I certainly will push for advancing the digital green certificate, in line with other European Union countries, as quickly as possible.

We certainly must be cognisant of the Schengen Agreement and be on a level playing pitch. There is no doubt that inward traffic is required to reboot the industry and, in particular, get the people who work at our airports back into meaningful employment and start to rebuild so much that we have lost over the last two years.