Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has warned Irish people to “forget about non-essential international travel” in 2021 unless we develop a reliable vaccine passport. Speaking to Matt Cooper on his Last Word programme on Today FM, Mr Varadkar warned that “the advice [against non-essential travel] will most likely stay in place for the duration of the year if not into next year, unless we get to the point where we can develop reliable vaccine passports.”
However, when Cooper questioned him about the vaccine passports, Varadkar replied that he shouldn’t have used the term because “the science doesn’t stand up for that at the moment”.
He added, “The vaccine passports yet don’t stack up scientifically or medically because we just don’t know at this stage what extent vaccines reduce transmission.”
Referring to the draconian new measures announced in the UK yesterday, February 9, Mr Varadkar said that “the best policy in international travel was a two-island strategy” and that “Northern Ireland is the backdoor to Ireland, and Ireland is the backdoor to Britain.” He stated that “any effective international travel policy would be one where the two islands worked together.” He said there’d been a lot of contact at a ministerial level in recent days and that there was a likelihood of developing a joint strategy. Listen from 13.20.
