People who aren’t fully vaccinated will be able to travel.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has confirmed that, as things stand, young people who are unvaccinated will be able to travel abroad when free travel resumes on July 19th.

Varadkar’s latest comments follow contradictory advice from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan, as well as reports that some young people could be waiting until November to be fully vaccinated, depending on supply.

Speaking to RTÉ on Tuesday morning, the Fine Gael leader said: “Because we are the Government, we have to take wider considerations into account, and that’s why the Government advice, the law we’re putting in place is actually different than the CMO’s advice.

“We are saying that people who aren’t fully vaccinated, including all those young people, can travel abroad, but they will need to get a PCR test before they return.”

Varadkar said that it would be “unfair” to prevent unvaccinated young people from going on foreign holidays. The same rule applies to everyone, but particularly affects young people, as they are least likely to be vaccinated.

Ireland’s current strategy is contingent on the introduction of the EU’s digital Covid passport on July 19th, which will allow free travel for anyone who has been fully vaccinated against Covid, has recovered from Covid, or who is in possession of a recent negative test.

However, the reality is slightly more complicated, as travel could be affected by a rise in cases due to the Delta variant.