The Minister for Health has defended Ireland's new travel rules - and hit back at Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary's comments about them.
Earlier on Tuesday, the airline boss blasted the Government's plans as "gobbledygook" and accused both them and NPHET of "making it up as they go along".
But Stephen Donnelly disagrees.
He defended the decision while appearing on RTE Prime Time on Tuesday evening, telling Sarah McInerney: "We've talked to the airlines and the Department of Health will be engaging further, but I would say this:
"Ryanair do this (system) all over Europe, their comments are quite odd seeing as they implement it all over the world."
Mr O'Leary had asked a number of questions in their statement, including: "How are airline or Border Control staff supposed to understand what a professionally done antigen test is, or looks like, when neither the CMO nor the Govt have even defined it."
The Minister responded bluntly while on Prime Time.
He said: "I would ask Ryanair given that they implement this, how are they checking? They're doing it every day. Their comments in terms of Ireland are very odd."
Mr Donnelly also defended what many see as Government u-turn on the implementation of antigen tests, saying: ""Neither I, nor Government have said that antigen tests mean nothing. As with masks, vaccines, there is no silver bullet for COVID. On antigen tests, ourselves and Portugal will be in the front but in most of the EU, they're used regularly, for example if you don't have a COVID pass you can take a test."
