Mr. Paul Reid:

I will be brief in my responses. On the question in respect of GPs, we are engaged with a total of over 1,300 practices throughout the country. The vast majority of them have received and, indeed, administered first doses to 72,500 people in this age population. The remaining supplies will be sent this week to 30 GP surgeries which are not in a position to buddy up for various understandable reasons. They cover a population of between 500 and 750 in total. That group will be vaccinated this week. The surgeries will receive their supplies during the course of the week. Our contact centre has been contacting them from last Friday and contact will be made to confirm deliveries for the rest of this week.

On the Senator's second point, he is quite right that there are other people in that age population that need to be vaccinated during the course of this week. That group includes people who are housebound. An arrangement has been put in place in agreement with GPs and the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, for them to be vaccinated by the National Ambulance Service. Third, arrangements are being put in place to vaccinate those who are hospitalised in one of our acute hospitals. It is a tricky issue because there may be some patients who are in hospital for a very short period, so arrangements need to be made in respect of where they will receive their second dose. However, our leaning now is that if people are in hospital, they will be vaccinated there and will most likely also receive their second dose in hospital.