Professor Brian MacCraith:

On the other half of the Senator's question, we absolutely endorse everything he said about a communications strategy. He had specific questions. There is one full work stream on communications and public engagement. It is led out of the Department of Health. The senior responsible officer is Deirdre Watters who is head of communications in the Department. In the implementation plan, it is one of the areas that has had our particular attention in our planning in recent weeks. On pages 25 to 27, inclusive, of the plan, a section sets out the core messages and key communication activities during December. In light of recent developments and potential announcements next week, those activities will have to be accelerated. That reflects something stated throughout both documents, namely that we have to be agile and able to adapt to changing circumstances in a very fluid situation.

To reinforce the Senator's point, one could get everything else right about the vaccination programme, but if the communications strategy and implementation is not right, everything else will not have the impact that we all need to see happen. It is essential and will be rolled out in greater detail.