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Malta's international airport. Shutterstock

Irish holidaymakers in Malta placed in mandatory quarantine after HSE vaccine certs not accepted

The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is aware of the situation.

LAST UPDATE | 20 Jul 2021

A NUMBER OF Irish holidaymakers who have arrived in Malta are being told they must complete mandatory quarantine due to entry requirements into the Mediterranean country. 

It is understood that a number of people were told by Maltese authorities that their HSE vaccination certs were not considered valid proof of their vaccination status when they arrived there this week. 

EU member state Malta is part of the Digital Covid Certificate (DCC) system, but those travelling there must be fully vaccinated in order to enter the country without having to quarantine. 

Most countries, including Ireland, are allowing quarantine-free entry into the country if passengers can prove they are either fully vaccinated, have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months or can produce a recent negative test. 

Malta, however, is imposing stricter rules on entry and requires that people are fully vaccinated to avoid having to quarantine in a designated hotel. 

While well over a million DCCs have been sent out in Ireland to people who are fully vaccinated, many did not receive them ahead of yesterday’s return of non-essential travel

Despite this, Minister of State Ossian Smyth has reassured prospective foreign travellers that they should not need a DCC to enter a country, as long as they can prove their vaccination status.

“If you can show evidence that you’ve been vaccinated, or that you’ve been tested, you can still travel,” he said last week and reiterated yesterday. 

But this does not appear to have been sufficient in this case of several passengers from Ryanair flight FR7242, which landed at midnight in Malta last night from Dublin.

One passenger, who has a DCC but whose girlfriend does not, told The Journal that her HSE vaccination cert was not accepted when the couple landed in Malta. This is despite her HSE certificate being checked before she boarded the flight in Dublin.

Robert says his girlfriend phoned the DCC helpline in Ireland last week to ensure she’d have her cert in time for travel and was told the process would be expedited. She has still not received it. 

Upon landing in Malta this morning, the woman was told that her vaccination cert was “not the required one”, with Robert saying he believes about 25 people on the flight were in a similar position. 

He added that the couple were told they would have to go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days, but that they could leave if his girlfriend received her DCC or if they booked a flight home.

A Notification of Mandatory Quarantine provided by Maltese authorities and seen by The Journal notes that the first day of quarantine is 19 July and that it will last until 2 August. 

Helpline

After widely reported issues with Ireland’s DCC helpline yesterday, additional resources were put in place today, but many people have still been reporting issues getting through. 

A second freephone number was then established to deal with “urgent queries only”. 

Robert says that after two hours waiting on the line this morning, the couple were told that his girlfriend should have her DCC in “the next few days”. 

The next return flight from Malta to Dublin is not until Thursday. 

He says that the cost of mandatory quarantine in Malta is not too expensive, but that he is concerned about older passengers on the flight who may be taking the experience badly. 

“There was an older couple I met in the hotel from Ireland who were very shaken,” he said.

“I felt very bad for them as they didn’t know what to do. I tried to get their number to keep in contact and get them sorted but they were flustered and didn’t have it to hand.” 

I know my mother would be very stressed if a similar situation happened to her. I rang the hotel asking for their names or room number to ring and check up on them but they wouldn’t give any details. Hopefully they have someone looking into it for them. I would imagine it would be very stressful for them.

ReOpen EU

The DCC is a standardised EU system to streamline travel checks but the advice being given by Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs is to check what restrictions are in place in the country you are travelling to before departure using the ReOpen EU website

The advice page for people travelling to Malta from Ireland was last updated yesterday.

It states that people can travel to the country if they are fully vaccinated and have a vaccination certificate that is recognised by Malta’s Superintendent of Public Health. 

As well as the DCC, it lists recognised vaccination certs as those from Malta, the UK, UAE, Turkey or the United States. The Journal has asked Malta’s Superintendent of Public Health if Irish vaccination certs are acceptable. 

In a statement to The Journal about the Irish citizens who recently arrived in Malta, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it is “aware of the situation and is liaising with the relevant authorities in Malta”.

“The department stands ready to provide consular assistance to Irish citizens upon request. As with all consular cases, the department does not comment on the details of any specific case,” a spokesperson said. 

The Department of Transport, meanwhile, said it was notified of this issue by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“The Department has contacted the carrier which operates four flights a week to Malta. The carrier will be engaging with the Maltese authorities regarding requirements for travel to the country,” a spokesperson said. 

The Journal has also sought comment from Ryanair about whether there is to be any change of policy about pre-boarding checks ahead of Thursday’s scheduled flight. 

There was no response from Ryanair at time of publication. 

Additional reporting by Christina Finn

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177 Comments
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    Mute verbal kint
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:27 AM

    Never mind commendation from the Oscar’s, cant get much more of an accolade than stephen hawking saying he’s proud of you !.

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    Mute Charles McDonald
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:54 AM

    Seen this movie. Very good acting. Also shows the amazing strength of mind of hawking.

    A very beautiful mind

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    Mute Dave J
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:06 PM

    watched it two or three days ago myself. I thought it was going to be a borefest, but I found it to be an awesome movie in every respect

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    Mute Kian David Griffin
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:21 AM

    Wibbly, he knows himself that they contradict each other, what that proves is that he is not afraid to be wrong, he challenged his own theories (which is something a lot of commentators on here would never do!)
    Have you watched the movie? In it they show that he openly admits that he is disproving his initial theories. That is the only way to reach the conclusion he is trying to reach, to keep going one better, challenge what was previously thought (even if it was himself that thought it).

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    Mute Norma Kealy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:54 PM

    My Dad has MND and I can’t bring myself to watch this film but it was brilliant to see Redmayne win .Was a lovely gesture to dedicate his Oscar to all those affected by MND……

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    Mute Conor Murphy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:57 PM

    Did anyone else read the Facebook post in the computer voice?

    49
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    Mute WibblyWobblyWonder
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:44 AM

    This is not going to be popular but here goes….
    I don’t believe in Stephen Hawking. I think he is the worlds greatest piss take that got out of hand and caught on. Just a poor guy in a vegetative state with an artificial voice programmed by someone else. His two alleged books contradict each other with theories that closer resemble religion than science.
    Look closer and engage your facilities and stop believing in all you are shown.

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:50 AM

    You’re a special kind of stupid aren’t you, wibbly?

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    Mute ProudIrishRepublican
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:58 AM

    Just one question Wibbly, do you wear big boy pants yet?

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    Mute Harry byrne
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:07 AM

    Thanks for that Humanity Changing Theory Wibbly..Great Input!!!!!!

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    Mute Eamonn Byrne
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:39 AM

    I’m quite sure that they were actual books and not alleged books.

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 11:48 AM

    That one’s right up there with “giraffes are a government conspiracy”. I salute you.

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:36 PM

    I take it you have never seen live interviews with the genius that is Hawking……you’re not a special kind of stupid. Tou and Lord of the realm of stupid…..

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    Mute Susan Adair Farrelly
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:53 PM

    Worlds greatest piss take that got out hand? You don’t “believe” in him? Care to explain?

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    Mute Shanti
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:04 PM

    There’s a reason his books contradict each other.

    The scientific principle is that you follow the evidence, wherever that leads. There’s no place for dogmatism.

    Stephen Hawking has had the sense to hold his hands up and admit when his theories are wrong.
    Hence why he doesn’t dogmatically stick to his guns.

    You seem to see this as a bad thing, but in reality it is simply proof of the fact that the man is only interested in discovering the truth.

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    Mute Louis Jacob
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:17 PM

    Tulip.

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    Mute Ger
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 12:44 PM

    I was smiling at the first two sentences because I thought you were being satirical. Then I realized you were being serious. Wow. Even Frank couldn’t come up with that level of nonsense.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:58 PM

    Don’t you mean ‘ questioning all that we do not know’, science is about facts rather than blind faith in the unknown.

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    Mute WibblyWobblyWonder
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:11 PM

    Hawking cannot do a live interview only one where he has been given the questions in advance so his voice system can be programmed to respond. He could not answer a basic question in real time. The interview you witnessed nearly presents the impression of being live.
    I’m not trying to be provocative but by applying the scientific principles of questioning all we know I feel it does not add up.

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:48 PM

    That lends to toir paranoia and not a lack of credibility on his part. You’ve no basis other than your wildly speculative imagination.

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:50 PM

    *your paranoi. I’m not as adept with the auld written word as Prof. Hawking

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:50 PM

    Oh I give up!

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    Mute Shanti
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:10 PM

    Wow..
    The man lost the ability to use his muscles, your tongue is a muscle too. So he lost the ability to talk. He was at an opera in Paris and had a seizure and the only way they could save him was with a tracheotomy meaning he lost what speech capabilities he had.
    He communicated for a long time by clicking around a page with one single control, because the only motion he had left was to squeeze with one hand. He doesn’t even have that anymore, and communicates with a twitch of the muscle of his cheek.

    As a result he has to type as though he only had one finger. Can you imagine how long it would take him to respond to any question?

    And yet you would use this as something to base a wild assumption about the man?
    Are you envious that they named a form of radiation after him or something?

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    Mute WibblyWobblyWonder
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 4:38 PM

    For anyone left on this thread, I find it curious that so many respond with such vehemence to somebody questioning Hawkins credibility. I suggest that the same critical analysis that caused Hawkins to revise his initial premise are applied to himself as a real genius trapped tragically inside a lifeless frame ravaged by the horror of MND or perhaps an elaborate creation of an inspiring human story of an active mind at its core that comments on all matters concerning humanity. Truely, I myself would like to believe, as I would in God and Santa.
    One final question….. If we have the technology to allow the millions of people who have this condition to communicate then why is it only used by one?

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:10 PM

    Vehemence? I challenged your points respectfully and you ignored them to post elsewhere with more unfounded accusations. I take it that’s what you do for fun…..

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    Mute Shanti
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:20 PM

    If you take issue with his text to speech module not being more widely available then surely that’s an issue you should take up with IBM?

    They use Professor Hawking as a test subject. His module is essentially the alpha test unit. And it has been used as a model to try and build similar things for other sufferers. The problem is how specific it needs to be, this makes it impossible for some to afford.

    Again, these issues are not the fault of Professor Hawking, who was broke enough himself for long enough.

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    Mute WibblyWobblyWonder
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 1:43 PM

    It may be more fruitful if all of you movie going scientists respond with a logical counterpoint rather than tin foil hat insults.
    A brief history of time published in 1988 espoused Hawkins alleged theories and became a global best seller realising millions of dollars. The world embraced him as a genius. Onwards to book 2, a briefer history of time which was also a global bestseller. Hawking ridicules his initial theories and presents New ones. Result…. Not only a genius but a brave one to admit he was wrong in the first place.
    He is one of the world’s most successful media creations and people follow him blindly.
    All I’m asking is that you all look closer and use your logic in the final analysis. A process that any scientist would encourage.

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:47 PM

    In order to know for sure one would have to meet with and talk to the man. Those that have consider him genuine. Your theory is nothing more than attention seeking tinfoil hattery with nothing to back it up but wild unjustified assumption.
    Ailbhe O’Nolan MSc

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    Mute Susan Adair Farrelly
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 2:57 PM

    @ wibbly Questioning and challenging theories is the cornerstone of scientific inquiry. Why do you have an issue with that?

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 3:10 PM

    In addition to Susans comment, finding reliable answers is part of thay cornerstone. Speculation is not a part of the scientific method. Even a basic hypothesis stems from observation, previous findings and logical extrapolation. Your theory has none of the above.

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    Mute Shanti
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 5:13 PM

    Wibbly, the scientific principle is to follow the evidence, wherever that leads. If it disproves your theory, then your theory is wrong. Clinging to it dogmatically is in no way scientific, it’s more religious.

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    Mute Liam Treacy
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    Feb 23rd 2015, 10:59 PM

    It is a great human story. The strength of the human condition.

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