Mattie McGrath Questions Vaccine Passports and EU Recovery Fund

I want to ask, Minister, you mentioned vaccines are discussed at all EU councils and at this one as well. I want to ask you, what are vaccine passports discussed at this European Council meeting? Are they discussed at other European Council meetings? And can you confirm to me that in 2018, which I happen to minister the meetings with me, but I have the articles in my file where vaccine passports are discussed in 2017 at EU level in the EU Commission level and 2018, ever before there was COVID was ever even dreamed of. So I want to ask you to clarify that. And I know you weren't in government, I know you're not in cabinet and understand that. So I want to know also, was the share of the EU COVID support fund even mentioned at this? You heard all the criticism in this house from all sides. Except the government, except the government about the parliamentary amount of money we got and challenges made about the late application. And indeed, they're not seeking enough funding. So is there any room for address and any room to go back? When you see countries, and I have the figures, what happened with me, of different countries, Croatia, you know, and many smaller countries, small countries, that got way above what we got. I said, I don't pay good anymore. Fair juice to their governments. Fair juice to their public officials for putting in the work in the applications. And why were we so late putting it in? Do you might answer those questions, please? Okay, can I just knock that one on the head that somehow this application was late? It wasn't late. I know Deputy McGrath keeps announcing this in the Dáil. That is not the case. And as a point of information, the application was not late. It was not late. There was no lateness about it. The application we did exactly when the European Commission wanted it, and in conjunction with the European Commission, it was not late. What date did it go in? Minister McGrath can set that, I just don't have the exact date to hand, but I can absolutely assure you, and assure this House, that there was no lateness. And in fact, no member state was late with their applications to the recovery fund. Deputy McGrath implies as well that only a certain amount of money was applied for. That's not the case. The money is allocated on a proportionate basis based on each country's national wealth. That's the reality of it. Deputy McGrath mentions the figure of 900 million. It's a bit more than that, but it fails to mention the Brexit adjustment reserve, which is over 1 billion, which is all part of the package really at the European Council last July when all of this budget was agreed. So in fact, the figure that Ireland is getting is effectively double what Deputy McGrath talks about. But also what's forgotten is, in all of this debate, that money spent in France or money spent in Germany or money spent in Spain benefits Ireland actually. Because Ireland benefits the most, apart from Luxembourg, from the European single market. So the companies in Clonmel, the pharmaceutical companies, the construction companies, manufacturing companies, that rely on trade with the European Union, are looking forward to us spending the money here, but also all of the European countries spending the money because they benefit from that. The single market benefits us hugely disproportionately and directly creates jobs in Tipperary South, in Mid-East, in Waterford, in all of these constituents. So we are doing very well out of this. We are glad that it's happening. We didn't pull the ladder up. We didn't join the frugal forest such to say that we shouldn't give money because we actually felt first it was right to make sure that other European countries were able to come up to the economic level that the rest of us are at. But also, selfishly, that we benefit when they do well because we are such a strong exporting economy, because we benefit so much disproportionately from the single market. When the European economy does well, we do well. And in relation to the spending of that money, I might say that I don't think our taxpayers should be paying funding into countries where they don't uphold the rule of law, basic human rights and human decency. And I very much look forward to the conditionality regulation of the rule of law coming into operation once the European Court of Justice decision goes through, if it does go as I would hope. That would be then enforced. And the declaration that we signed last week calls for that to happen and calls for strong action to be taken because we can't be spending money where the rule of law is upheld. But when we spend money in the European single market, where we stimulate that economy, we benefit more than almost anybody else. Thank you, Minister. Deputy Harkin, you've... Oh, sorry, in the passports, yeah. Sorry, I'll happily answer that. I'm not aware of any discussions in 2017. I wasn't at the General Affairs Council or the European Council. Yes, they were discussed certainly at the European Council last week. Just to be absolutely clear about the digital COVID certificate, it's an instrument for travel. If member states want to use it for domestic purposes, they can do that. But there's no mandate from the European Union to do that. You don't have to do that. What is clear, though, is that the digital COVID cert has to come in. So an Irish government or an effort or the Dáil actually can't overrule it at this particular point. It is now law as and from tomorrow. We have six weeks to implement it, but we said we'll implement it by the 19th of July. That's happening. There's huge work going on despite the hack of the HSE systems to make that. But that be very, very clear. That is a legal obligation of the state that cannot be changed at this particular point. That is going to happen. Thank you. Thank you.