Mr. Damien McCallion:

It is from NIAC, as Mr. Reid said earlier, we take the guidance. Senator Hoey mentioned it in terms of younger people from 12 to 15 years old. We are not waiting for that. We are anticipating something will come along which will be offered to that age group.

The factors we are looking at in terms of that age group are the best model for their vaccination - they are school-based children in the main - and factors such as subgroups within that. If we can vaccinate a large group quickly, we have found that to be nearly as effective as trying to isolate numbers and then trying to extract those. We look at all of those factors before we come up with a plan. We are doing that planning through our planning team and national immunisation office, in parallel with the work going with NIAC on looking at the evidence and so on in terms of vaccinating, so that if a recommendation comes from NIAC, we have assessed the options and looked at the best way to do it. That would include factors such as those Senator Hoey mentioned, such as young children who have particular medical conditions and have had to isolate for lengthy periods. That would be part of the solution in terms of how we do it.

Ultimately, it could come down to the speed at which we can roll this out. We have found if we can do it very quickly, it is often as quick to do that and to try to bring those people through, depending on the numbers, in specific ways. That will be part of what we consider in any deployment plan for that 12 to 15 age group.