Táinaiste Leo Varadkar has said that the State is currently working out how to use covid passes domestically for indoor dining.
Speaking yesterday in the Dáil, the Fine Gael leader explained the government’s plans in this area.
Leo Varadkar on the use of covid passes in Ireland: "We're working out now whether we can use that domestically. It was only ever intended for international travel".
Not so long ago, people who suggested this would happen were called crazy conspiracy theorists. #disbandNphet pic.twitter.com/9xJEzQ338W— JRD (@JRD0000) July 1, 2021
“On the digital Covid cert, that’s exactly what we are doing,” he said.
“We are working out whether we can use the digital Covid cert to apply it domestically. We do expect that within the next three weeks hundreds of thousands of people will receive their digital Covid cert, electronically or by post.
“We are working out now whether we can use that domestically. It was only ever intended for international travel. Border check control staff checking these passes is a very different thing to staff in the local pub or restaurant doing it. That needs to be worked out.”
Notably, Ireland was the one and only EU member state which failed to issue the covid travel certificate for international movement this week, with all other governments managing to get the scheme up and running in the allotted time.
As promised, the #EUCOVIDCertificate is ready ✅
All EU and European Economic Area countries are live connected to the gateway.
They can all (except one) start issuing and using the Certificate in order to facilitate safe free movement of citizens in the EU during the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/B32v6HwLHp
— European Commission (@EU_Commission) July 1, 2021
Reportedly, the Irish government’s failure to do so is related to the ongoing damage from the HSE ransomware cyber attack, which has not yet been repaired.
This week Didier Reynders, the European Commissioner for Justice, asserted that Ireland is lagging behind fellow EU member states in this area.
“I want to confirm that now we have a real good evolution with all the member states, except Ireland until now,” he said.
“Due to a cyber attack in Ireland, it was difficult to reach the goal to have all the technical solutions in place before the first of July but for all the other member states, we don’t have any concern about the way to proceed.
“To add two things, first of all, the certificate is a tool and we recommend to all the member states to use such a tool, not only for the free movement like we are organising with the regulation but also for all the possible national uses for other purposes to go to concert, festival, theatre restaurant etc.
“We need to avoid the confusion and the fragmentation with not only the EU digital Covid certificate but also all the kinds of certificate at the national level.”