Mr. Paul Reid:

I made the point earlier that the issue of delivering the vaccine in an efficient way is a key priority for all of us. We would rate highly in European terms for our administration of vaccines per hundred thousand of population based on the level of supply. We also rate highly on the distribution and administration of those vaccines. Some 95% or more of any vaccines we get in a given week are administered within that week and, in some cases, within three days. That is at a high level.

The approach we have taken to vaccinating, based on medical guidance from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, has been specifically to address the most vulnerable. If one takes, for example, long-term care facilities or nursing homes, practically all of the residents and staff of nursing homes have received both doses of the vaccine, with the exception of a tiny few with a level of sickness that means we will have to go back to them. The vast majority of residents of long-term care facilities, more than 90,000 people, will have received their first doses of the vaccine by the end of this week. That is a highly vulnerable group in terms of impacts that include death and mortality.

The situation is similar for addressing front-line healthcare workers who are also highly vulnerable. We are vaccinating the over-70s who are living in the community. We are seeing a benefit from the approach we are taking. We are, thankfully, seeing reductions in mortality, infection rates in nursing homes, outbreaks in healthcare settings, the levels of sickness among the elderly population and the levels of sickness and absences from work through Covid infection among our healthcare workers. Transmission levels have collapsed in the past four to six weeks as a result of the vaccination programme. We are seeing strong benefits to date from the programme based on the prioritisation approach. It is the right approach.

To return to the nub of the Senator's question, the pace of the roll-out will be a function of supply, which is currently the constraining factor when we consider how much quicker we might go. That is part of our mobilisation plan for April onwards.