Ryanair today (9 July) has accused Transport Minister Eamon Ryan of dithering and mismanaging Ireland’s reopening and urged him to “follow the science” and the UK government’s decision to allow both vaccinated citizens and under-18s to travel freely from 19 July without quarantine restrictions.
In a statement, the carrier said that the UK government’s decision has given UK families “a much-needed summer holiday boost and Minister Ryan (and NPHET) should now follow the UK science which shows that vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness/fatalities.”
The airline also says that vaccines have “broken the link between rising Covid case numbers and hospitalisations.”
A Ryanair spokesperson added: “The UK and other EU countries continue to open up and remove travel restrictions, yet Minister Ryan and NPHET continue to dither and mismanage Ireland’s reopening.
“With less than 60 Covid cases in hospital and less than 17 in ICU’s there is no justification for keeping Irish families locked up despite very low Covid hospitalisations and ICU numbers in Ireland.”
Paddy Last
Last week, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary wrote an open letter to the minister accusing the government of ineptitude in the rollout of the EU Digital Covid Certificate and said that Ireland was lagging ‘Paddy last’ behind every other EU country.
The rest of the EU rolled out the digital certificate on 1 July but Ireland is set to roll its version out on 19 July.
It has yet to launch a public awareness campaign of how the certificate will work.
