Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 May 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Digital Green Certificate and Rapid Antigen Testing: Discussion

Mr. Ivan Bassato:

To answer the Deputy's first question, regarding the test in the US, the legal requirement is that it has to a PCR molecular test or an antigen test. Individuals are responsible for taking the test and presenting the testing certificate to the airline at the boarding gate. It is at their own expense. The certificate has to include proof that the individual has undergone molecular or antigen testing. There must be a clear statement that the test is either a PCR molecular test, one of the kinds of PCR tests that exist or an antigen test. Obviously, the result must be negative to board the plane.

On the second question, regarding the test here in Italy, as I stated, the doctors and nurses are public health officials and the airport is involved in organising the activity. For example, passengers are checked in at the testing area by our staff. In the context of booking only and the pre-registration booking of people who want to test and are travelling outbound from Rome, as well as those who are incoming from the US, we have a registration system which, of course, does not store health-related sensitive information. All information relating to the negative or positive status or health status of the individual is dealt with only by the public health authorities, absolutely not by us or the airline. We organise the security and facilitation of the area, we do the check-in and provide all the information tools but the health-related activities are performed by public health officials.

In answer to the Deputy's last question, in general, we need to be fully compliant with GDPR and we absolutely avoid handling information that we are not authorised to handle.

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