Speaking to media, according to the Irish Examiner, the Independent delegate to Ireland's lower house of Parliament said: "Is that where we've come to now – back to 1933 in Germany? We'll be all tagged in yellow with the mark of the beast on us – is that where we're going?"
When challenged by an Irish Examiner journalist as to whether the comparison was appropriate, McGrath replied that, "If you study history – and I'm not a historian – you can see what happened in Germany.
"There are huge correlations. It's exactly the same if you want to study it – exactly the same – restriction of movements, couldn't go where they wanted to go, treated like..." he said, not completing his thought.
"I'm comparing what went on in early Germany – the people had such fear and that's what happened – so I am comparing, yeah," the Tipperary TD (assembly delegate) said. "That's for me to compare and for anyone else who wants to read history, [to] make their own decisions on it."
McGrath has previously made Holocaust and Nazi comparisons referencing the pandemic.
Speaking in the Dáil, the lower house of Parliament, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin asked McGrath to "refrain from his frequent use of language" like "Nazis" and "totalitarianism."
"You consistently make ridiculous assertions in this house that insult and are offensive to people," Martin said.
"Do you understand what Nazism is about, do you understand what the Holocaust was about?" the Fianna Fáil (Republican) Party leader asked.
McGrath replied, "Spare me the history lecture."
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has asked Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath to 'refrain from his frequent use of language' like 'Nazis' and 'totalitarianism' when describing Covid-19 measures, saying the comparison is insulting and offensive to people | Read more: https://t.co/eGUxxEjcpb pic.twitter.com/m6qdDpb8fB
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 13, 2021
The Auschwitz Museum took to Twitter to criticize McGrath.
In the tweet, the Auschwitz Museum gives the parliamentarian a history lesson. "Instrumentation of the tragedy of all people who between 1933-45 suffered, were humiliated, tortured & murdered by the hateful totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany to argue against vaccination that saves human lives is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline," the museum's account said.@mattiemcgrathtd ‘Holocaust–the destruction of European Jews’ A seven-chapter online course about the history od the #Holocaust. All parts below.https://t.co/Law3fQRRMS
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 13, 2021