Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for attending this morning. At the outset, Professor MacCraith pointed out how uncertain the situation is. We all appreciate that. It is very fluid and it is changing by the day, if not by the hour. There has been news today that could be quite a game-changer, depending on how it goes. We all accept that, and it is important that people be reassured, but the best way to give people reassurance is to provide up-to-date, factual information because the goalposts are changing quite a bit. It is important that we do not raise people's expectations unrealistically. That is where accurate information comes in. It is really important that it be provided to the public generally and also to us. As health spokespersons and as a committee, we have really struggled to get our hands on up-to-date, accurate information. There is the weekly session in the Dáil but we have not got too much information from that. What is the basis on which we are approaching this? We need to be absolutely up-front with people and provide up-to-date, timely information.

This raises again the question of whom we must contact when we want to get information about vaccines. That is a genuine difficulty. I appreciate the attendance of all the witnesses this morning, but the reality is that the lead person in this area is not present today. There is something wrong with that. I accept that the lead person is very busy, was on the radio this morning and has a huge amount to do — too much, in my view — but, again, I return to the issue of governance and the question of whom the buck stops with. While it stops with the Minister politically, whom does it stop with in terms of the operations? There is a problem in that regard.

With regard to accurate and up-to-date information, we are now getting figures twice weekly on the numbers of people vaccinated. Professor MacCraith said we have the figures on the numbers of vaccines delivered to the country or in the country at any one time. It is important that we get that information and that it be put on the website of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC. It would be great if it could done daily. I refer to the number of vaccines we have received in the country and how many have actually been administered. It would be great to get figures daily but even twice weekly would be a big improvement. Professor MacCraith has said he has those data and is happy to share them. Will he share them publicly on the HPSC website?

My second question relates to AstraZeneca. Obviously, there are major concerns over the reliability of the delivery. If the vaccine is approved by the European Medicines Agency today, is there an expected delivery schedule? Can it be provided to us in the quantities expected?