David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and welcome all our witnesses. I wish everybody well in the roll-out of the vaccine programme, including Mr. Walsh and his team, Mr. McCraith and Dr. Colm Henry, who is not on the call. Obviously, it is a difficult and challenging job. It is demand-led and supply-led in terms of the number of vaccines that come in.

I want to make one observation, first, if I can, picking up on some comments that were made in the opening statements. It is important, from our perspective, that we do not over-promise and that there is a clear link and connection between what is being said by those rolling the vaccine out on the ground and what is being said at a political level. I want to make that point first so that we do not overpromise in any of this.

It was stated by Mr. Goodman that there is a lot of intense interest in the vaccine, and, obviously, there is. I see that as important, something that we should value and something that we should seize upon because ever before a vaccine was approved or a dose came onto this island, the debate and question was whether people would take the vaccine. That question has been answered by the huge demand right across society for the vaccine. That is important. It needs to be recognised and valued and then we have a responsibility to deliver.

Professor MacCraith stated either in his opening statement or in response to a question that the supply depends on what we get from the various different pharmaceutical companies. There has been, the professor stated, ten different changes. We accept that as well. Obviously, to some degree the task force is at the mercy of the providers of the vaccine, but Professor MacCraith stated that there was reasonable confidence for the first quarter of this year in terms of supply. How does that measure with the Minister's assertions over the past number of weeks? The Minister was making these assumptions based on the AstraZeneca vaccine arriving. There has been a revision of that because of the dispute between the European Commission and the company. The intention was for 700,000 people to be vaccinated by the end of March. Is that still the case?