Dr. Tony Holohan:

That is fine.

I thank the Deputy on behalf of the whole committee for his kind remarks at the beginning. In broad terms, we are satisfied. When we look at where the country is by comparison with other countries regarding vaccination, we see a very high uptake. There remain pockets where the vaccination level is below what we regard as acceptable or safe for certain groups. The HSE has a number of different measures in place to try to raise the vaccination rate among what might be called hard-to-reach groups. In broad terms, we have seen a very good uptake under the booster programme. There can be a delay in the booster programme, as members will know, because people have been advised to wait for a period after an active infection before coming forward for the booster. It has been necessary to delay the booster dose for some people, which means we will continue with the programme for a period and slowly increase the uptake. The data we see provide really strong evidence and support for the view that vaccination and boosting give the best protection one can have in preventing the infection from becoming severe to the point of landing one in hospital or intensive care, or an effect that is even more serious.

A significant proportion of people in intensive care, even though their number has been falling over recent weeks, still comprises those who are not properly and fully vaccinated and boosted. Even though the majority of the population, or well over 90%, have had their primary course of vaccination and we have seen a significant uptake of the boosters, we still have some way to go in getting the message across to people who are not yet vaccinated. We are not resting complacently on the basis that we are doing much better than many other countries in this regard; the message still has to go out to each individual that the best thing that can be done to be protected is to get vaccinated. We can see that we have very high levels of infection, and our view is that these high levels are likely to continue for some time. Therefore, as people go about activities that are now possible and that perhaps were not possible over recent weeks and months, there is a chance they will encounter this virus. They should assume they will, even if it is inadvertent. If they are not protected through vaccination and a booster, the disease is still very serious-----