Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an extension of the plan we have been following, which is that we are about protecting lives and livelihoods. We are in a race against time, in terms of dealing with Delta and getting people vaccinated but also making sure hospitality has a chance to survive over the summer. It is about indoor hospitality. When it comes to hotels, they will continue to follow social distancing to allow that mix of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. There is nothing in here specifically about weddings. Is it implied that weddings will continue to operate in that way, in that they will have social distancing or will be handled the same way as hotels? It is not clear.

It is also not clearly acknowledged that weddings do not always happen in hotels. They can happen in specific wedding venues and in marquees and people's back gardens. We need to be really clear about this with people. When we are talking about indoor premises, are couples and people attending weddings covered within that? If they are attending a wedding in an indoor hospitality venue that is not a hotel, are they covered within that? I ask again about August and clarity around the 100 people who may attend. People who are getting married need to know that now and there is a role for antigen testing in the context of weddings.

I am coming back to issues I have raised many times, but there is still a lack of clarity around northerners and people who got their vaccines in the North. My colleague, Deputy Neale Richmond, raised the issue with the Taoiseach the other day and the Taoiseach said there is no issue on that. There is no issue on what? We really do need to know how it will work. Will the digital Covid-19 certificate integrate with the Northern Ireland Covid-19 passport? Does it align on the same destinations or does it depend on what airport one uses? If people depart from Dublin and have the Northern Ireland Covid-19 passport, does that mean they are subject to the rules of Ireland, as a country? If they go from Belfast, is that a third country? There are loads of questions people are asking and, without clarity, people are flying blind.

I would like an update around the WHO recognised vaccines for people versus the European Medicines Agency, EMA. There is only one strategy here based on division and it is not the Government. This is the staggered reopening based on the vaccination programme. Part of the opposition will jump on any opportunity to create a them and us situation. People that might jump on that bandwagon need to think very carefully about that, because I do not want to go down the road of a them and us society.