Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We obviously had good news regarding a Covid-19 vaccine in the past week from Pfizer and BioNTech who say they have a vaccine that will be 90% effective. Given the issues relating to storage, this may or may not be the vaccine that will be rolled out in the coming months. I understand that others will be coming on stream pretty quickly too, which will be fantastic. We cannot allow this to result any form of complacency as to how we deal with Covid-19. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree and perhaps next week we can discuss the plan for December. We need an indication from the Government as to what will be the plan for rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine. There is no doubt we will have some form of vaccine very soon, whether it is from Pfizer or others. I understand that a task force has been set up. I presume this has been in place for some time so the Taoiseach might tell us when it was set up, how it will work and who is on it. That all needs to be made public.

The Taoiseach might also inform us about discussions with the European Commission regarding its contract to purchase 300 million doses of the current vaccine. When will it be available, how much is coming to Ireland and how quickly? We need to plan and we need a detailed plan from the Government very soon. We admit that this plan will change; we know it will change. Across society and particularly across health care, however, there needs to be co-ordination. Everyone involved needs an indicative working plan from the Government. The Taoiseach might outline that for us.

I hope we will be able to administer the vaccine much better than we are administering the flu vaccine. We need to dramatically improve on how we roll out the Covid-19 vaccine versus what we are doing in respect of the flu vaccine. Some 1.3 million doses of the latter were distributed. Last year, I asked numerous times on the floor of the Dáil and at committee that we would actually purchase enough vaccines to give to everyone for free. The Government refused and we are where we are today. Now we know that a certain amount of the vaccine has been withheld.

We also know that there are huge administrative issues with the procedure by which the vaccine is being administered. Why in God's name are we expecting GPs to have to log on to the PCRS system every single time they administer a vaccine in order to claim payment? In 2020, surely this is a ridiculous administrative burden and is creating more time for vulnerable people and others to be around one another?

I have a number of specific questions for the Taoiseach. First, what is being done to get more flu vaccine doses? How are we going to ensure that the current roll-out is made more efficient? Why are we using an archaic system? Above all, what is the plan for the roll-out of the Covid vaccine, when it is announced - admittedly, it will be a working plan - and how will we ensure we get it out in a more efficient manner than we are doing with the flu vaccine this year?

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