Mr. Damien McCallion:

Yes. There are two key points. The first is that there is a process for all those who have been vaccinated. Every day we have new people getting their second dose and, as Ms Canavan said, it is a record of a medical event. We turn those around to Mr. Lowry's team and the people involved then get their certificates. There is a process in terms of any rebounds, be they email or letters, which can be dealt with from there. Hopefully, as we get over this initially hump, that will be much smoother for people in terms of the timeframe. If we take it that most EU member states are insisting that people wait that period, be it for 14 days, before using it, that should not present any issues on an ongoing basis.

On the certificates we are still working on, we still have a small proportion, particularly going back to the early days of the programme when there was pressure on hospitals, long-term care, healthcare workers, etc., and where minimal information was, perhaps, provided or incorrect data may be there that we are working through. There are approximately 150,000 of those left and we are working through them. We have a team involved, and the number outstanding is decreasing every day. The number would have been much larger at the start. We take the data from GPs, pharmacies, the National Ambulance Service and community vaccination teams.

The public portal is much easier because we have verified email addresses for people. We still get some rebounds from that, maybe where people have changed email address or whatever, but, in the main, it is quite a reliable pathway. The other pathways are more complex. Obviously, it depends on the information that is collected at the point of vaccination. Clearly, there was no minimum data set required, for example, for the digital certificate when the vaccination programme commenced in January.

We are working through those fairly quickly. There are some complex cases in terms of names, addresses and other information. We have teams working to validate that information with GPs, hospitals, long-term care facilities and other such settings.

As already stated, nearly 2.2 million certificates have been issued. That number will certainly be reached today. The vast majority of those are out. We will deal with those that come back through the post and email, as Mr. Lowry outlined. We are still working through the final group with which there are issues in terms of the data that was collected. That might be the reason, as the Chairman stated, a person who was vaccinated four to six weeks ago has not received a certificate and someone who was vaccinated in the past four or five days would have received his or hers. That is the sort of mix. Once we get over this hump, there is a smoother process that will allow the production of certificates to run on an ongoing daily basis. As stated, given the requirement for that sort of period after the vaccine to be extended, that will not present any issues for people. This is just a critical phase to get through.