Professor Brian MacCraith:

There is a twice-weekly announcement at the moment of vaccination figures and of the numbers of vaccines arriving and we are happy to share those figures regularly. The plan from the HSE is that once the IT system is fully up and running, there can be daily updates on the vaccinations. The whole system is driven by supply and it varies often. Since I started in this role, there have been up to ten changes in the information on the supplies of the various vaccines. We have a level of confidence for this quarter, although it was dented in recent days by the AstraZeneca issue and we are awaiting clarity on that.

We are sticking to the principle of administering vaccines as soon as they arrive. We work right to the edge of the supply that is available. No vaccines are resting in the fridges or freezers in any given week and I can share those figures with the committee. We have been adhering to that. As an example, in the three weeks up to Sunday last, the average number of vaccines administered per week was 48,000, which equates approximately with the volume of supply. We are adhering to the level of supply, therefore, and trying to manage the situation to keep a supply available for the second dose. As the committee will be aware, the three vaccines we are considering at the moment are dual-dose vaccines. I am happy to share the figures with the committee, and I agree with the Deputy about the public confidence issue and ensuring the vaccination rate adheres to the principle we set out.