Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been following the debate all morning. I reiterate what my colleague, Deputy Lahart, said. It is very important to bring some calmness to this debate and certainly in this forum. Terms such as "overpromising" and "kicking a political football about" do not help when many people are on oxygen support this morning and are battling Covid. I hope we will see AstraZeneca and all the other vaccines we need come through the supply chains right down to community level in the country in the quickest possible time.

I thank those who have joined us from the HSE. They are doing a very difficult job. Many of the difficulties that have presented in the past three or four days are not of their creation. It is a supply chain issue, which will largely need to be hammered out at European level in the coming days. As we have done at each meeting of the joint committee, I acknowledge the immense work by our front-line health service staff.

Mr. Goodman might be in the best position to answer my first question.

In the context of the roll-out, from national level right down to county and local health level, I am very concerned that a large cohort of the mental health staff in County Clare and in the University Limerick Hospitals Group have not yet been vaccinated. We are seeing around the country various news bulletins to the effect that everyone from administrative staff, people who may have the protection of a Perspex screen, to some outdoor staff in hospitals have been vaccinated, yet the mental health staff in Ennis and around Clare have not been vaccinated. Many of them continue to circulate in the community and call to people's homes and they have not been given that all-important jab yet. This is very important. I have raised it with Colette Cowan of the University Limerick Hospitals Group, but still we have no certainty as to when they will get vaccinated. Elsewhere in the country, I saw the other evening that Bantry hospital in Cork vaccinated everyone. They have now moved on to vaccinating local GPs, bringing them in very successfully, so there is not parity right throughout the community. I know a devolved responsibility has been given to each hospital group, but there is a need for co-ordination here as well, ensuring that some rungs of the ladder have not been missed. In County Clare, they certainly have been missed.

If I may, I will also put the next point to Mr. Goodman. It relates to GPs being vaccinated. A number of GPs have been in contact with me. In the early days of the registration portal there were some technological glitches which meant that as they put in their data those data were wiped, as I understand it, and they had to re-engage with the process again and again, meaning many of them did not register successfully. It is only in the past day or so that they have been able to do so. They are wondering whether that technical glitch will delay their vaccination. That is what I would like to ask.

I have a number of further questions to come in on, but perhaps Mr. Goodman could respond to those two initial ones.