Head Of Ryanair Claims Chaos At Dublin Airport Yesterday Over Use Of EU Digital Covid Certificate

Ireland is the only country in the EU where it is not operational, with the airline calling on the Transport Minister to switch it on so fully vaccinated Europeans can travel here

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary says Ireland is 'Paddy Last' when it comes to facilitating European travel:

"Yesterday, we had a whole slew of cases in Dublin Airport, where fully vaccinated Belgian, Italian and German citizens arrived up with their QR code and their digital COVID cert, only to be threatened with mandatory hotel quarantine by the Border Force, who didn't know what the QR code was. We had chaos at the airport yesterday."

The Department of Justice has dismissed Ryanair's criticism, saying officers at the Border Management Unit are fully aware of what the EU Digital Covid Certificate looks like.

It says while the Department does not comment on any individual cases, if any person was stopped and was in possession of a Digital Covid Certificate, the person may have been unable to provide evidence that they also had a negative PCR test administered within 72 hours of their arrival in Ireland.