16 Other EU States Already Issuing Certs – Ireland Is Lagging Behind And Must Catch Up

Ryanair, Ireland’s largest airline, has today (17^th June) called on the Irish Govt. to allow vaccinated citizens immediate access to their EU Digital Covid Certificates (“Covid Certs”) without further delay. Despite last week’s confirmation that Ireland has moved to a “ready” state for the issue of the Covid Certs, over 1 million fully vaccinated Irish citizens still await their Covid-19 certs and continue to be wrongfully “locked up” on this Island, while they should be allowed to travel restriction-free immediately.

While over 1 million Covid Certs have been issued across 16 EU countries (Spain, Poland, Germany, Austria, Croatia and many more), Ireland continues to delay issuing Covid Certs to its vaccinated citizens. The Irish Government continues to mismanage the Covid-19 recovery. Over 60% of adult Irish citizens have now received first vaccines, and 70% expect to be fully vaccinated by the end of July, yet Ireland continues to impose the most restrictive travel policy in the EU. Thus, the Govt. requirement for vaccinated citizens to take a PCR test only increases the cost of travel for families and is untenable and unjustifiable. What is the point of vaccination programmes then?

It is inexplicable, with less than 60 Covid patients in hospital (less than 20 in ICU’s), 60% of adults first dose vaccinated, and all of Ireland’s vulnerable groups fully vaccinated (with vaccines which are effective against variants), the Irish Government continues to ignore medical and public health data and isolates Ireland from the rest of Europe.

A Ryanair spokesperson said:

“All of Ireland’s vulnerable groups are fully vaccinated and over 60% of adults have received a first dose vaccine, yet Ireland continues to impose the strictest travel lockdown in Europe.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan continues to mismanage travel, keeping vaccinated citizens locked up, thus preventing the aviation and tourism industries from recovering the thousands of jobs that have been lost for over a year, and now he delays the rollout of the Covid Certs even while 16 other EU countries have already begun issuing these certs to allow their vaccinated citizens to travel freely within the EU.

 The successful rollout of the new EU Digital Covid Certificates gives a much-needed boost to the tourism industry across Europe this Summer. It is unacceptable that Ireland is, as usual, lagging behind and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan must now immediately allow vaccinated Irish citizens to access their Covid Certs so they can now travel freely and without any further unjustified delay”.