David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I just needed the figures so I thank Mr. Tierney for that. My final question relates to a tweet that was put out by the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, on Monday. He said:"... the DCC is not essential for travelling, you can still travel on your vaccine card or a negative PCR test!" As we know, however, and as people in Malta found out, that is in fact not the case. Those people now have to quarantine. What is the advice from the Department? Should people be travelling without a DCC? Are there other countries where it might be problematic and where people might get into difficulty if they travel? This is all part of the confusion. To say that we could not have anticipated the volume of calls is to stretch people's patience. To then not build into the assumptions about the number of calls that the certificate would also be used for domestic purposes, which would drive up the demand and the pressure on the system, will also stretch people's patience. Then there are the contradictory statements coming from Ministers. A Minister of State indicted that people could travel without the certificate and that their vaccination cards would be sufficient. Now, however, people have ended up in quarantine. Can one of the witnesses clarify what the actual advice from the Department is for people who are travelling?