Ms Yvonne O'Neill:

I thank the Deputy. I will deal with his questions in reverse order. The roll-out of the vaccination programme to nursing homes was accelerated. In the month since we received the vaccines, we have basically administered one dose in all of the 578 nursing homes bar four. As was stated, those who could not receive the first dose for clinical reasons will receive it when the programme for the second dose is rolled out. The only dependency is the supply of the vaccine.

The nursing home sector remains the priority in the roll-out of vaccination.

We talked a little about the Covid response teams in our reply to Deputy Cullinane earlier, so I will ask Dr. Kennelly to respond to the specific question on what actions happen as soon as an outbreak is detected.