John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer condolences to my colleague on the passing of his grandmother and to those other families who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 in the last number of months. I wish the Minister well in the arduous work he has ahead and extend that wish to his officials and to the members of the vaccination task force and NPHET, who have done sterling work and who I am sure must be at the point of exhaustion at this stage.

I must still convey to the Minister the questions that are on the minds of my constituents and of people in Ireland. In one sense a nation is holding its breath, to use that phrase, which I know the Minister is aware of. The public has only one question on its mind now which is when will it receive the vaccine. The private sector has been seen internationally to have rolled out the vaccine at incredible speed. It has moved mountains to ensure that the vaccine has been rolled out. Now there is an expectation that governments and the public sector will do likewise across Europe. There is a degree of incredulity at the European response and I wish to echo the comments made by previous speakers.

My questions include the following. We have been told that there will be an abundant supply from March 1 onwards. That is two long months away. What are the plans for the roll-out of this abundant supply? Is the ICT infrastructure built and operating? The public has clearly moved from pre-Christmas-mode vaccine anxiety to vaccine hunger. There is a great appetite for the vaccine. What is the latest information on 24-hour vaccination centres? We have seen these operating in other jurisdictions but have not heard anything about them here. What is the latest information on mass vaccination centres and when will they be located? What is the latest information on vaccines outside of office hours and when will that become available? Has a deal been done between GPs and the Government with regard to vaccine roll-out in surgeries when that is possible with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine? We have the vaccines and the question now arises as to whether we have the personnel and the infrastructure to roll them out and when the personnel will be in place. How many people, if any, have received both doses at this stage? By my calculation we need approximately 1.1 million doses of vaccines to reduce deaths and hospitalisations by approximately 85%. If that was done, society could lead a good life at these levels and the awful hospital burden would not exist or be nowhere near as acute as it is now.

We saw yesterday, because we get so much news from the UK, that the UK Government rolled out 250,000 vaccines in one day. Therefore, there needs to be a system that allows no delay between the arrival of the vaccine and its rolling out. I welcome the roll-out of the Moderna vaccine but we do not know when we will be in a position to receive it. This lack of hard information is causing a lot of anxiety.

There are questions over whether there are people trained to administer the Moderna vaccine. People of my age are asking when they will receive the vaccine and how they will be informed. How will older people be informed about when they might receive the vaccine? I have a constituent who is over 100 years of age. There cannot be many such people in Ireland. When will such people receive the vaccine? How will they be prioritised? When will carers and the vulnerable get access to the vaccine? When are people who give home care to special needs adults and children, for whom testing for Covid, contracting Covid and isolation are traumatic, to receive the vaccine? When will the special needs adults and children being cared for at home be treated the same as those with special needs in institutions? When will children with special needs at home receive the vaccine? When will ambulance crews be vaccinated?

I have about 20 more questions I could ask but I have limited time. The message is not getting through. There is a hunger for information that will be replaced by anger very quickly if answers are not forthcoming and if the public is not given a calendar and certainty as to when they can receive the vaccine.

See this speech in context