Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. The prioritisation and implementation strategies announced this week are identified by the task force as living documents because how the vaccines are rolled out and which country gets them and when is dependent on three factors, namely, when the European Medicines Agency, EMA, authorises them, information that is still to come from the regulatory process in terms of which vaccines are most suitable for different people and, in part, the sequence of the vaccines. For example, the first vaccine on which the EMA is likely to make a ruling, probably on 29 December, is the Pfizer vaccine. It has to be stored at -70oC. There are other vaccines, which we hope will be authorised, which are stored at a refrigerated temperature. In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, GP surgeries and pharmacies do not have the necessary type of storage facilities and, therefore, a strategy is being developed to put in place the types of hubs mentioned by the Deputy. There will be distribution from hubs where there is specialist storage. The other vaccines that just need to be refrigerated can be distributed in a different way.

As of now, we have no authorisation on any of the vaccines but the implementation plan being presented tomorrow is an adaptable plan according to the information we get and the sequencing and timing of when the various vaccines are authorised.

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