Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too pay tribute to the many people working in our front-line health services at this time. All that has been said by senior management in the HSE in the last few days indicates just how stark this battle is. This is not all about vaccinations. It is about people playing their role by staying at home, staying safe and keeping out of harm's way, and making that mammoth task a little easier for those at the front line of our health services. I offer my sincere condolences to families who have lost loved ones over the last weeks. This is about saving lives and ensuring that far fewer families have to go through that awful grieving process at a time when grieving is so difficult.

Regarding the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, I note that the European Medicines Agency anticipates that it may sanction that vaccine for full roll-out across EU member states on 29 January. We cannot have this soon enough. I have been reading with great interest in recent days that this is the vaccine that can be rolled out at pharmacy level. It adds an extra tier of rolling out the vaccine, gets it deeper into the community and allows it to be accelerated. As a member state of the European Union, we need to look at every way possible to fast-track that. In any other calendar year, 29 January would be quite soon, but in this calendar year, in the darkest days of this crisis, that date cannot come quickly enough.

I welcome the announcement that from Saturday onwards, all air passengers coming into Ireland will have to have a clear PCR test 72 hours in advance of their arrival. That is welcome and I think it will bring some confidence and certainty to people that those people who need to travel into our country do so Covid-free and are not putting our country at added or heightened risk. When we get beyond this peak period of Covid phase 3, we need to look at PCR testing in the context of aviation. I have noticed that there is significant variance across Europe with regard to the price of a test in a private capacity. In North Macedonia, for example, a PCR test costs €40 to take privately. In Ireland, it costs between €120 and €150 depending on the region in which one undertakes that private test. The manufacturing cost of a test unit is €12. There is significant variance and this will be a stifling factor when we get beyond peak Covid. When we are trying to have aviation and other types of international travel recover, we will need to make it possible and feasible, not prohibitive, for someone to get a Covid test and happen safely. That is for another day but it is a debate that should be happening in the background of the Department in conjunction with those in the travel sector. We also should be looking at antigen testing at points of arrival. They cost about €5 each and it takes minutes to generate a result, as opposed to hours for a PCR test.

Our priority listing for the vaccine roll-out is quite good. I make a pitch that we look again at our teachers, special needs assistants and all those who work in education. We hope that in February, the conditions in our country will be right and safe for them to return to work. They need to be bumped up from category 6 to a higher level.

I note that in 2020, when we looked at how hospitals were impacted, University Limerick Hospitals Group was under the most pressure, with 9,483 cumulatively on trolleys over the year. Some 75 people were on trolleys in the week before Christmas. Much was done for hospitals in the winter plan and much is being done to grapple with the Covid crisis. The solution to the problems in University Hospital Limerick lies in Ennis Hospital, Nenagh and St. John's. I hope that the Department will look at unlocking some of that.

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