Digital vaccine certs will allow people to travel throughout EU 

Covid-19 vaccination passports for travel between EU member states are expected to become law by mid-July.

EU ambassadors are meeting in Brussels today to sign off on plans for ‘Digital Green Certificates’ which will allow people to travel throughout the EU once they are vaccinated.

The European Parliament will debate the new certificates in the coming weeks and it is expected the EU directive will be signed into law in early June. Member states will be given a six-week grace period to introduce the new passes.

Once it becomes law, EU countries will then be obliged to accept the certificates from international travellers. It is also expected that passengerswill be able to avoid quarantine once they can produce a Digital Green Certificate.

This could pose a problem for the Government’s mandatory hotel quarantine system. However, the Cabinet last week agreed to review the legislation underpinning the quarantine system in June.

European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne said clarity on the start date for the Green Certificates was welcome.

“We are clearly still in the stages of dealing with the pandemic and the public health concerns are the top priority but we have to move to a stage where international travel he will be welcomed and wanted, and the Digital Green Cert will provide an opportunity for that,” he said.

“The Government hasn’t decided yet what the certificates will be used for here but it is clear that the  European Commission and many other EU countries see them as a means to restart travel when health conditions allow,” he added.

Mr Byrne said hotel quarantining was “always a temporary measure” and insisted “none of the Covid-19 restrictions are going to be here forever”.

“We have already seen some countries come off the list and I hope, subject to health advice and conditions improving, the removal of countries will be accelerated,” he said.

The proposed digital certificates will indicate whether a person has been vaccinated and will also note whether they have recently recovered from Covid-19.

The certs will also be used to show a person has received a negative test before they left a country.

The Government is considering whether the certificates can be used to allow vaccinated people attend sport and music events once they are introduced.

The Government is also seeking advice on whether fully vaccinated people can avoid facing mandatory hotel quarantine when they arrive in Ireland.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said it was his “firm view” that anyone who has been vaccinated against Covid-19 should not be forced to stay in mandatory hotel quarantine.

He said the system should be prioritised to those most at risk, particularly around new variants.

He said it was very hard to “logically explain” how someone who is fully vaccinated for a period of time is “a greater risk than you or I”, while speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne.

Under current legislation, everybody arriving from countries on the mandatory list must do so, regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated or not.

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