Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State mentioned that vaccines are discussed at all European Council meetings, including this one. Were vaccine passports discussed at that meeting? Have they been discussed at other European Council meetings? I do not have the minutes of the meeting to which I refer with me but I have the articles in my file regarding the discussion of vaccine passports at EU and European Commission level in 2017 and 2018. That was before Covid-19 was ever dreamed of. I ask the Minister of State to clarify that matter.

I understand that the Minister of State was not in government and is not in the Cabinet, but I would like to know if the share-out of the EU Covid-19 support fund was even mentioned at this meeting. The Minister of State will have heard all the criticisms in this House, and from all sides, except that of the Government, regarding the paltry amount of money we received. There were challenges regarding the lateness of the application and, indeed, not seeking enough funding. Is there any room for redress and to go back? I have the figures, but not to hand, for countries such as Croatia and many other smaller countries that got much more than we did. I do not begrudge any of them for that and fair dues to those governments and public officials for putting the work into their applications. Why were we so late in putting in our application?

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