John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Targets were set not by the HSE although Paul Reid talked on radio about 0.25 million vaccines per week. As many as 1.2 million vaccines have been administered up to today and we are to get to 4 million vaccines by the end of June. The target is not a big deal to me but it is what missing the targets implies, and they are not the HSE's target necessarily. Right now, 27% of Irish people are unemployed. So, a quarter of the Irish population do not have jobs and the vaccination programme is so critical to mobilising those people back to their jobs and opening up the economy. There are people surviving on €350 a week so that is why targets are important for planning purposes.

We have 1.2 million vaccines, which means we need 2.8 million vaccines to reach the target set by the Government, that all adults in the country would have received at least one dose by the end of June. I see that 1.2 million vaccines were received up to 31 March and, as of today, in and around 1.2 vaccines have been administered. That does not add up.