Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions today. I have questions on three areas, namely, third level students, children with cancer, and maternity restrictions, which I am sure the witnesses will receive further questions on after I conclude.

We have spoken about the vaccination of third level students in August and September. I have been contacted by a number of students who are going abroad either on the Erasmus programme or for international studies. Some of the institutions they are going to have said that the students cannot attend unless they can prove they have been vaccinated, otherwise they will not be able to attend on-campus. Are there plans for those students? It is not an enormous cohort but there will be a number of students who, having paid and are ready, will not be able to go abroad or will have to delay going because they will not be vaccinated in time. Has any thought been given to that situation?

I have a second question for Mr. McCallion in relation to children with cancer. Children with cancer and their parents are still waiting to hear when vaccines will be made available to children aged 12 to 15. I know the Pfizer vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency at the end of May, but there has been no word yet from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, on this. We are waiting on NIAC to give the go ahead. Has the HSE given any consideration on how it will prioritise these high-risk patients in that age group, because they have been isolating for a long time and, obviously, the parents are extremely concerned about their children. I will throw all my questions out and the witnesses can do as they will with them.

On the maternity restrictions, why are the risk assessments not publicly accessible despite the calls from Dr. Peter McKenna in April, and the HSE in May, to make them public? Is there any further information as to why these risk assessments are not available? On 10 May, Dr. Tony Holohan said that there should be a return to pre-pandemic partner access. There still seems to be mixed messages on when that will happen. Do the witnesses know when that is going to happen, whether it will be in the coming months or weeks?

The vaccination levels among maternity unit staff, and pregnant people and partners will affect restrictions. Obviously, vaccination levels are extremely high among maternity staff and levels are climbing among pregnant people and their partners. What is the current position of the HSE on the risk associated with partner attendance in maternity units, where other public health guidelines, such as social distancing and the wearing of personal protective equipment, are taken into account? There was reference made in the guidelines that partners could not be allowed in for privacy reasons, I am sure the witnesses are aware of this. That was never a reason in pre-pandemic times. Therefore, why has privacy suddenly started to be referred to as a reason that pregnant peoples' partners need to be kept away from certain things, when that was not the case before the pandemic?