The Government cannot guarantee that all fully vaccinated people will have their EU Digital Covid Certs (DCCs) by July 19.
ully-vaccinated people will have to wait to get a vaccination cert with a QR code from the HSE, which will act as the DCC from that date.
This will come in the form of an email or a postal letter, depending on what information has been provided to the HSE, and will be issued from next Monday.
To meet the July 19 target, the Government will have to issue more than 1.8 million certs to fully-vaccinated
people within just seven days.
However, a Government spokesperson could not guarantee that every fully-vaccinated person would have their DCC on time.
“Whether they’ll have it in their possession by the 19th of July, I can’t say I’m sure. But they’re starting to go out from the 12th of July,” the spokesperson said. “I don’t know when every single person from 1.8 million will get their cert. They obviously are going to go through it as quick as they can.”
The spokesperson said those who registered for their vaccine through the vaccine portal were likely to get an email, while those who got their jabs in a pharmacy or from a GP were likely to get a postal letter.
It is understood more than half of vaccination certs will be issued by post initially.
The certs will be generated by the Office of the Chief Information Officer using data from the HSE. The Revenue Commissioners will assist with the initial batch of postal deliveries.
Those who have not been vaccinated will need to pay for a private PCR test, and the private testing facility will then issue the DCC.
Those who have recovered from Covid and want a recovery certificate, which will act as the DCC, will have to contact an established DCC call centre to ask for one.
The Government will establish a “one-stop” for queries about the cert, travel advice, passports and mandatory hotel quarantine.
The move comes as hospitality groups are due to meet Government officials tomorrow to continue crunch talks on how indoor dining can reopen.
The Government spokesperson said that while there were a number of areas up for discussion, using the DCC as a vaccine pass was a “strong candidate”.
Vaccine passes for indoor hospitality will also have the “potential” to be used for cultural events and festivals such as Electric Picnic, according to Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin.
As concerns remain about the highly infectious Delta variant, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said cases “will rise dramatically in the next few weeks”, but there should not be a “spiral of fear”.
“It’s a wave that’s happening, but it’s a wave that we can withstand,” he said.
“But I do think that we need to avoid getting into a spiral of fear here. The Delta wave is happening but it’s going to be different than other waves.”
He said the lifting of all restrictions – including social distancing and the wearing of masks – in England on July 19 was “too risky”.
He warned that if “things go wrong” in England, there would be a “spillover effect” here.
Meanwhile, capacity on public transport will be increased to 75pc from July 19. Ministers agreed to increase limits from the current 50pc on buses, trains and trams. The change will apply across all operators, including Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail.
