Vaccine certs are likely to remain in place until January 2022, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has indicated.
It comes as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said NPHET has given the go-ahead for nightclubs to reopen but with conditions which would include vaccine passes.
Minister Donnelly also said fully vaccinated people who are deemed close contacts of a confirmed case will now be sent an antigen test.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Minister Ryan said the legislation for vaccine passes is set to expire on January 9.
He indicated the system would remain in place until then.
When asked about reopening nightclubs, Minister Donnelly said: “What I’m happy to say to you is the advice from NPHET is we can continue, they would advise, continuing with the reopening of society but doing so in a way that’s very cognisant of the disease, [with the] widespread use of the Covid pass...enforcement and use of the Covid pass.
“Essentially NPHET is saying yes to nightclubs but with conditions around Covid passes and social restrictions.”
Minister Donnelly also gave an update on the use of antigen testing.
He explained: “I have advice from NPHET that antigen testing can be used with fully vaccinated close contacts.
“At the moment if you’re fully vaccinated and a close contact [of a confirmed case], there is no advice or requirement for you to get any test.
“Given the current prevalence of the disease, we’re changing that.
“What will happen now, is if you’re deemed to be a close contact and fully vaccinated, we’ll send you out a rapid test.”
When asked if vaccine passes will stay in place until January 9, Minister Ryan said: “I think yes.
“We’ll keep it under review but it does run until the 9th of January so I presume where we are now, that’s not that far away.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Taoiseach said: "The next number of months really depends on the collective behaviour of us and the entire society.
"We will have a challenging winter due to transmissibility of the delta variant but we do know vaccines work in terms of bringing down hospitalisation, ICU and severe illness.
"In addition to that, a whole range of measures that NPHET are recommending, around behaviour, around masks, continued wearing of masks in a whole range of settings as well a Covid passes which government will consider later."
He added we are in a "much different position from last year" and must "proceed with caution".
Share your views by taking our Covid survey here or below:
