09.21 9 Apr 2021
The European Court of Human Rights has backed rules in the Czech Republic banning unvaccinated children from schools. Could a similar requirement be introduced here? Well to discuss further we hard from Dr Conor Casey Lecturer in Constitutional Law University of Liverpool & Liam Herrick, Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
told Pat Kenny trying to apply this on a smaller, country-wide scale is problematic. Going from that to a policy of discrimination in terms of access to goods and services more generally - which would involve things like hairdressers or pubs or restaurants - asking people questions about their personal health status, controlling that data and effectively in an Irish context discriminating against huge sections of the population based on age and health status adds a whole layer of legal and rights issues .
He added that while he understands businesses want to open again, such vaccine certs could hurt the vaccine programme.
Updated / Tuesday, 6 Apr 2021
20:25
The Restaurants Association of Ireland said it would welcome a discussion on green passes
The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said that a digital certificate for Covid-19 vaccination cannot and should not lead to any type of discrimination.
Speaking on RTÉ s Drivetime, ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said that anything that allows discrimination in terms of access to goods and services, or employment raises an obvious question . discrimination . It also puts people in a position of being forced indirectly to take a vaccine, which raises questions of bodily integrity and the principle of consent to the vaccine programme.
Facebook’s Kustomer buy could face EU probe after merger referral
The European Union may investigate Facebook’s $1BN acquisition of customer service platform Kustomer after concerns were referred to it under EU merger rules.
A spokeswoman for the Commission confirmed it received a request to refer the proposed acquisition from Austria under Article 22 of the EU’s Merger Regulation a mechanism which allows Member States to flag a proposed transaction that’s not notifiable under national filing thresholds (e.g. because the turnover of one of the companies is too low for a formal notification).
The Commission spokeswoman said the case was notified in Austria on March 31.