Dr. Ronan Glynn:

Yes, we are obviously always concerned about vaccine hesitancy. While that has been less of a concern over the first number of months of roll-out in that anyone who gets a vaccine or is offered a vaccine has been very keen to avail of it, we have been aware of the need to maintain levels of confidence in the programme. That has been a key component of the approach that we have taken. We have tried to be proactive in assessing the latest data, in communicating that and in ensuring that the public understands the rationale for decisions and that they understand that safety comes first in terms of our decisions. It is thanks to the work of NIAC, and the work of colleagues in the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, and across agencies that despite what has been a bumpy road, not alone in Ireland but internationally in terms of these vaccines, almost nine out of ten people in Ireland say that they will probably or definitely take a vaccine when it is offered to them. Clearly, we cannot take that level of confidence for granted. Clearly, we have to continue to communicate and address concerns. As I have said on many occasions, there will be 20% or 30% of the population who will have very legitimate questions and concerns. We need to continue to address those. In particular, we need to address the concerns of vulnerable communities and hard to reach groups over time to ensure that we see equitable access and equitable uptake as the vaccines are rolled out.

On the second question, we have had 46 cases of the variant that was first reported in South Africa reported here to date. We are concerned about levels of variants, either actual levels in the country now or, potentially, increasing levels of those variants over time. In particular, we are concerned about their potential impact on the effectiveness of vaccines and the potential, were they to spread, for them to have a detrimental impact on what we want to do in easing measures across society over the coming months. Thankfully, at the moment the numbers are low but we need to keep them low. As the Senator indicated, in the UK and, indeed, here, that necessitated a very robust and comprehensive public health response each time one of these cases has been identified. We have had very robust responses from our public health doctors for a number of months now around these variants as they have been identified. Indeed, updated guidance around that response was brought to NPHET last week and endorsed. The HSE is in the process of operationalising that.

I cannot speak to the issue of hospitality. I understand that will leave many members frustrated but I am not going to speak to specific measures that may or may not happen over the coming months. We will look at the data over the next two to three weeks and we will provide updated advice again to the Government at the end of April. The intention is that we will provide a roadmap from there for May and June, and onwards. That is subject to the disease remaining stable or, indeed, continuing to improve over the next couple of weeks. Clearly, there is a need for a plan. People need to know what is coming and the broad parameters for when they can expect various measures to ease so let us see what the next couple of weeks bring. Clearly, the last week was very positive in terms of the disease but that was in the context of the Easter break and we just need to see what a normal week looks like this week.