The Republic of Ireland has opted for an anti-virus contact tracking phone app supported by Apple and Google, which claims "maximize privacy protection".
The approach differs from that of the United Kingdom, raising doubts as to how it could affect cross-border operations with Northern Ireland.
The Irish Health Minister said he "ensures constant alignment with EU guidelines" on data protection.
But Simon Harris added that the option should also be the most effective.
While countries around the world have run to develop contact tracking apps for mobile phones, two paths have opened up: one model that matches contacts on a person's device and another where it runs on a central server .
Privacy advocates claim that the device-based model is less intrusive and less prone to abuse.
The UK is believed to be working on a centralized model, which it believes will offer more information on the disease.
Many other countries choose to use the system supported by Apple and Google, which among them run the software on almost all smartphones in the world.
"The Irish team is working closely with EU counterparts and the NHS to support achieving interoperability, recognizing that no country alone can solve it," says Harris' statement.
Despite potential obstacles, the goal is "ultimately to achieve international interoperability within the EU and between Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom," he said.
Union divided
There is not even a common approach within the EU: the European Commission has stated that both models are acceptable, although there has been a trend towards the "decentralized" Apple-Google model, which was supported by the digital commissioner and long critic of those companies Margrethe Vestager.
But France, like the United Kingdom, is at odds with Apple over its desire to use a centralized model in the interest of public health.
The technology giant usually does not allow a key element of Bluetooth technology to run in the contact tracking system in the background and has said it is unwilling to change this criterion to allow for a centralized model.
Germany also said it wanted to pursue the centralized option, but changed its approach last week, saying it favored a personal version to encourage people to use it.
Ireland also seems to have changed its mind.
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The statement outlining the plan was issued to Irish politician Ossian Smyth in response to a parliamentary question.
It said: "In terms of design architecture, we were initially pursuing a" hybrid "model, but following discussions with other countries and GDPR experts, we have now opted to progress in development based on a more" decentralized "or" distributed "".
Harris added: "Technical progress will largely depend on the availability of [application programming interface] developed by Apple and Google. "
