A member of NPHET says avoiding travelling abroad if you are unvaccinated is advice, not an instruction.
It comes after the Chief Medical Officer yesterday said people shouldn't go abroad for a holiday unless they're fully vaccinated.
The EU digital green cert is supposed to aid travel for those who are not only vaccinated but who have tested negative for Covid-19, or have recovered from the disease.
Restrictions on non-essential international travel are set to ease from July 19th.
But Dr Tony Holohan's warned that if unvaccinated people travel, it's possible they'll bring back variants of concern.
HSE Chief Clinical Officer and member of NPHET, Dr Colm Henry, says people will have their own choices to make:
"First of all, as with, I would hope, any doctor, we give advice, we don’t tell people what to do.
"There are many instances where doctors give advice to people and people choose whether to take the advice or not. It is a question of giving advice in order to keep people safe.
"The advice, of course, at this point in time – and we know Government is planning to review that advice in July – is to travel abroad only if absolutely necessary and of course we are advising people that they are much safer if they are fully vaccinated. That is what the evidence shows."
Main Image: Travellers stand with their suitcases at a check-in counter at Munich airport, 26.03.21. Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa
