Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, I will happily answer the question on vaccine passports. I am not aware of any discussions in 2017 on this. I was not at the meeting of the General Affairs Council of the European Council but the passports were certainly discussed at the European Council last week. To be clear, the digital Covid certificate is an instrument for travel but if member states want to use it for domestic purposes, they can do that but there is no mandate from the European Union to so do. What is clear is that the digital Covid certificate must be introduced here. Neither the Irish Government, NPHET nor the Dáil can overrule it at this stage. It is now law and, from tomorrow, we have six weeks to implement it. We have said that we will implement it by 19 July. That is happening and huge work is going on, despite the hacking of the HSE's IT system. I wish to be clear that the digital certificate is a legal obligation on this State that cannot be changed. That is going to happen.

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