Mr. Fintan Towey:

For several months now, carries have been implementing certain checks at the point of boarding in order to safeguard the public health requirements. I suppose the first issue that the carriers address is in terms of the online check-in. They require travelling passengers to complete a checklist in terms of not having symptoms of Covid and being aware of the requirements relating to travel. At the point of boarding, all carriers are checking that travellers have evidence that they have completed the passenger locator form. They are also checking that there is evidence that a person has a negative PCR test, which is the primary public health control that we have been implementing for some time. Of course, the new requirements in respect of travel that have been applied since Monday mean that persons who are vaccinated or who have recovered and have confirmation of that through a DCC do not require a negative PCR test. We are now expanding the passenger locator form to capture passenger declarations according to the specificity of the health status under which they are travelling, which could include a DCC, other evidence of vaccination that is acceptable, evidence of recovery, etc. The airlines and ferries will continue to check at the departure that those declarations have been made and, where applicable, they will continue to check evidence of negative PCR tests.