Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I wish to offer my sincere condolences to the families of those people who passed away during the entire course of this pandemic but particularly to those whose family members died over the past few days and weeks when the numbers escalated.

I take this opportunity to thank the front-line staff who are fighting the fight of their lives against this pandemic to save lives. What they are doing is incredible. In my constituency in west Cork, from the GP clinics to the community hospitals and the general hospital in Bantry, what the front-line staff members are doing is incredible and I want to thank them. They are putting themselves at risk to save others. Unfortunately, they are dealing with a serious outbreak in Bantry. They have lost staff who contracted Covid and have not been able to attend work but they are still bravely fighting the fight. Thankfully, there was good news in Bantry on Monday with the arrival of a batch of 500 vaccines, which have been administered since Monday afternoon. That came as a huge sigh of relief to the staff but, unfortunately, they still have a bleak few days ahead of them.

I refer to the winter plan which was put in place before December. We are seeing the benefits of the investment in that. The health system is under severe pressure from Covid case numbers at the moment but I can tell the Minister it would be under much more pressure if it was not for that investment pre-Christmas. That has to be acknowledged.

I welcome the recent announcement about the requirement for PCR tests from Saturday in terms of those travelling here from abroad.

I join other Deputies in referring to the need for urgency in the vaccine roll-out. The largest volume of telephone calls to my office and to those of many Deputies, is about looking for information and clarity on the vaccine roll-out. There are guidelines on the HSE website but we need more information and clarity. I appreciate that the logistics in this regard are incredibly difficult and that it is not an easy job but the more information we get, the better. As I said prior to Christmas, we cannot be seen to be the laggards of Europe. I know that we are increasing the rate and are moving up that European table but because of the sacrifices that businesses and the Irish people have made in previous lockdowns, it is very important that we are at the top of the table when it comes to the roll-out of the vaccine. Getting the vaccine is what is on people's minds. They are trying to find out where they come in terms of priority, the location of vaccination centres and where they can get information. Not everybody is able to go online and, unfortunately, not everybody is finding it easy to get access to information so printed documents and information must be got out to all sectors of society.

The fewer questions that people have, the more certainty and confidence they will have that this vaccine programme will work.

We need a review of vulnerable groups. I refer specifically to adults and children with special needs. There is much uncertainty as to where they will come. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, she mentioned that there is a review and work is ongoing to get as much information as possible about that sector. We need to provide certainty for service users, the parents and the guardians about when children and adults with special needs will receive the vaccine.

We talked about the speed and urgency of the vaccine. Many factors are involved. The most important one is that we will save lives if we roll out the vaccine faster. There are a couple of other factors. We will save regional economies. A place such as west Cork, where I am from, relies heavily on hospitality and tourism. We cannot go through another summer of severe restrictions. Businesses simply will not survive. The sooner we can roll out a vaccine and open up regions such as west Cork, the sooner people can come back and enjoy what west Cork has to offer.

The entertainment industry needs to be supported too. The faster we get a vaccine, the better it will be for the entertainment industry. I ask the Government to look at its suggestion about helping with the roll-out of the vaccine. The event production industry Covid-19 working group, EPIC, has made a fantastic suggestion and it needs to be looked at.

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