EU COVID certificate scheme extended to Irish citizens in Northern Ireland

Irish passport holders who reside and have been vaccinated in Northern Ireland are eligible to apply for the EU’s digital COVID certificate from Thursday. This allows them to travel more freely throughout the EU.

The certificate will be available to anyone who has received one of the four vaccines approved in Ireland.

The scheme will be extended from 21 October, and Irish citizens vaccinated with an approved jab anywhere outside the EU will also be eligible to apply for a certificate.

“With over four million certificates issued, this project has helped support the safe reopening of our society and facilitated the recommencement of non-essential travel,” said Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

The scheme, which the EU launched in June, is designed to ease free movement within the EU by providing standardised proof of vaccination, testing and recovery.

According to Ireland’s European Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne, “the Digital COVID certificate is an excellent example of how EU solidarity and cooperation has been vital in enabling us to overcome the many challenges posed by the pandemic”.

“I am very pleased that today’s announcement will facilitate Irish passport holders living outside the EU who are already fully vaccinated with an EMA-approved vaccine to exercise their rights as EU citizens to travel freely within the Union, including in travelling back to Ireland”, he added.

(Molly Killeen | EURACTIV.com)