David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Ms O'Connor. I accept Mr. Reid's point that health services staff have been through a very difficult time and have gone above and beyond the call of duty. It is unbelievable what those on the front line and elsewhere in the health service have done over the past while. It would be wise if the emergency department task force met as soon as is possible notwithstanding all of the other challenges. If there is a particular problem in some hospitals, whatever the reason, it would be useful if the task force were to meet.

I have two more questions for Mr. Reid. The first is in regard to student nurses and midwives in placements. There was a commitment to pay them €100 and that was to be backdated. My understanding, having engaged with the INMO, is that not all students have been paid. I do not know if that is down to the cyberattack or if there is some other reason for it. Whatever the reason, voluntary hospitals appear to be more on top of making the payments than is the case with acute hospitals run by the HSE.

I ask Mr. Reid to respond to that.

Mr. Reid gave figures earlier for the vaccine roll-out. We all welcome that more people are getting vaccinated, which is really good news. The harm associated with Covid is significantly reducing because of the vaccine roll-out, which is something we should all celebrate. Mr. Reid spoke about the supply of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines over the coming months. I ask him to give us the figures for the Janssen vaccine. The last time Mr. Reid appeared before the committee, the Minister had said that the worst-case scenario for June was about 60,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine, with the best-case scenario being 230,000. My understanding is we might have got about 70,000. We were expecting very significant amounts of the Janssen vaccine in July. Again, my understanding is that will be at the lower end of the expectation. We know the Janssen vaccine is also being made available to pharmacists. I ask Mr. Reid to give us the breakdown on the Janssen vaccine and to outline the status of payments to student nurses and midwives.