The Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has said that extending the use of the “clearly discriminatory” Covid cert system could bring about further division in an already divided society that could be “very difficult to repair”.
On Newstalk’s The Hard Shoulder programme on 15 November, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick spoke out against the extension of the Covid cert system, and questioned its success, stating that there was “very little evidence” regarding how successful it has been. He also said that it is not clear what exactly the Covid cert system is supposed to achieve.
His comments gained support online, with many people backing Mr Herrick. On Facebook, some social media users replied to the news story, describing Covid certs and their possible extension as “pure discrimination,” “a coercive measure” and “as useful as a chocolate teapot”.
“When will people realise it’s not about the virus [?]” one social media user asked.
“Certs are discriminatory and this will end up in court,” one person wrote. “It causes division,” one user claimed, while another said that, in their own experience, showing a Covid cert amounted to tokenism because of rising rates of Covid infection despite a 90%+ vaccination rate.
Another ventured: “Covid certs aren’t fit for purpose. They show you had a jab at some stage but that’s it. It’s been used as a free pass for everyone to go into places. A lot of people obviously sick with covid going in and spreading it. Time to say goodbye to the cert.”
Mr Herrick’s remarks came as senior Government ministers met (15 November) to discuss the latest advice from NPHET. Yesterday (16 November) it was announced that a pubs curfew is to be reintroduced and working from home is to make a return across the Republic of Ireland. Staff will be advised to work from home where possible once more from Friday, while the Government agreed an earlier closing time of midnight for bars, restaurants and nightclubs.
Mr Herrick criticised the Covid cert system as “clearly discriminatory” – and said the real question that must be asked is whether the system is “justified and proportionate”.
Referencing Austria’s lockdown of the unvaccinated, he said: “I think that there’s very significant concerns about what the Austrian Government are doing. I think it’s welcome that the Taoiseach has indicated that it is not something he would consider here”.
Mr Herrick said that, despite the fact the ICCL was “supportive of the vaccination campaign” and “the Government’s public health effort,” he said that “the idea that any state would seek to impose criminal liabilities and restrictions on people on the basis of health data or vaccination, I think, is deeply troubling.”
“It is clear that we are in a difficult position at the moment and Government has to make difficult choices,” he said.
“Some public health measures it can introduce don’t have an impact on people’s rights and are not discriminatory. For example, providing free access to testing is not problematic and requiring people to wear masks on public transport is a very limited imposition on people’s rights.
“But what we seem to be moving towards here is a wider use of something that clearly is discriminatory (that is, the vaccine cert system) and doing so, when there’s been very little evidence produced of exactly what function the cert system is performing, and how it’s performing in practise. “
Mr Herrick also noted that, if the cert system was targeted at encouraging more people to get the vaccine, it is now redundant in light of the high levels of vaccination in Ireland.
“We have the highest level of vaccination of any country in the world – how much encouragement do we realistically think we are going to achieve?” he said.
He also acknowledged that there are people in Irish society who have made the choice not to take the vaccine, whether that be for medical or personal reasons.
“We might have a counter-effect here. There are a small number of people in society who have chosen not to take the vaccine. Some for medical reasons and some for other personal reasons.”
He also argued that those sceptical of the government-backed vaccine and policies surrounding it might “reinforce” possible suspicions and “create a worse problem”.
“Some people believe … they are suspicious of the State around these matters and these kinds of discriminatory policies might in fact reinforce that belief and might in fact create a worse problem.”
He added: “It is completely reasonable that bodies like NPHET will look at this from an immediate point of view of the hospitals in crisis and disease control – but Government needs to look at the wider societal impact and the long-term effects and we need to think about creating divisions in society that might be very difficult to repair.”
Mr Herrick also pointed out that vaccine certs were originally supposed to be phased out as soon as a sufficient proportion of the population had been vaccinated.
“We need to remember […] that the vaccine cert system was introduced at very short notice last summer, really for the purposes of opening pubs and restaurants a few weeks earlier than they might have otherwise.
“And we were told that it was only going to be in place for a number of weeks until we got over a critical mass of the adult population vaccinated, so it seems to have had different purposes at different points in time. The Government hasn’t really brought forth any evidence of how it is performing in practice.”
“So, to rely on this as a significant public health measure without any evidence, when we know it is discriminating against people – including people who can’t get the vaccine for medical reasons – I think is troubling.”