Last update: September 1st, 2021.
Since July 19th, Irish citizens can travel safely across Europe with their EU Digital COVID Certificate (EUDCC). This includes travel in the EU and EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland).
Ireland is on its way to fully vaccinate nearly 90% of the adult population, and 80% of Irish citizens over the age of 12.
Most European countries integrated the EUDCC before the official launch of July 1st, but due to a cyber attack Ireland only started using the certificate on July 19th.
How to get an Irish COVID passport
Ireland is issuing the EU COVID Certificate by posting and emailing them to negative, recovered, or fully vaccinated citizens. Over two million certificates were issued within the first few weeks of launch.
One million certificates were emailed to those who received their vaccines through the Health Service Executive portal. One million certificates were posted to those who got vaccinated by a GP or at a different facility.
The COVID Tracker app can be used to store the certificate on your mobile. Users can scan the QR code of the certificate onto the app and it will be stored in the app as a wallet.
The recovery certificate is also available 11 days after recovery and can be requested by phoning the certificate helpline on 1800 807 008.
If an individual has received a negative PCR test result, they will also be issued an EUDCC by the testing facility. This will only be valid for 72 hours.
What is the EU Emergency Brake?
The EU Emergency Brake is an agreement between member states to tighten travel restrictions in order to stop the spread of a concerning COVID variant, like the Delta variant.
If a concerning COVID variant is detected in a certain country, the Irish government will strongly recommend not traveling there.
The “emergency brake” system will impose a 14-day hotel quarantine on non-vaccinated travelers entering Ireland from a high-risk country.
In the case of an “emergency brake” in Ireland, vaccinated travelers will be required to provide negative PCR test results upon arrival, and self-quarantine until a second test has been taken 5 days after arrival.
COVID Certificates in Northern Ireland
In late July, Northern Ireland launched the COVIDCertNI app, an international travel app which issues NI COVID Certificates to vaccinated citizens.
According to the local government, COVIDCertNI will be issuing travel health certificates for another three months, until December.
The NI COVID Certificate is issued both digitally and by post, though a Department of Health spokesperon remarked that due to high demand it can take “up to 10 working days for the printed paper version to arrive.”
Irish passport holders who reside in, and have been vaccinated in, Northern Ireland will not be able to benefit from the EUDCC yet.
The Irish State has no official record of vaccinations in Northern Ireland (which are kept by the NHS) and can therefore not issue the EUDCC in that region.
Current COVID-19 health situation in Ireland
Ireland reached its peak of daily new infections in January 2021, and was recording only around 1000 new cases per day by late July. The Delta variant has provoked a new rise in cases, jumping up to 1700 new cases per day by late August.
The death toll has been mitigated thanks to a successful vaccination campaign. It has stabilized since April 2021 and by September 1st, 5092 people have passed away from COVID-19 in Ireland.
The vaccination rate has grown sharply since April. Almost 90% of the adult population was vaccinated by September 1st, giving Ireland one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe.