Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to continue in the vein that Deputy Carroll MacNeill has started. It is pretty much the same thing. I echo the comment made by Deputy Colm Burke earlier on. As a Member of this House for the past decade, I am getting information on Covid vaccinations from journalists. That should not be the case and I know the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, accepts that. That has to change dramatically and quickly.

The public is in need of a significant shot of hope and the vaccine roll-out is a great opportunity to do that. A number of constituents have been in contact with me over the past week or so who simply want to know. I got a text message late last night from a person who had completed the online predictor Deputy McAuliffe referenced earlier, wanting to know what the story was. Of course, it is not an official source and it is problematic but these are the sources of information and the lengths to which people will go to get information. I acknowledge the Minister knows this. I welcome his comments earlier on the provision of information from this weekend. I also welcome the comments of several colleagues, myself included, that the app should be used for the provision of this information on a daily basis. Along with the number of new cases and the number of unfortunate deaths, we should provide the number of vaccinations administered in that day or perhaps the day prior. That can be achieved and I would like the Minister's further commitment on that.

We know that when the Pfizer vaccine arrived, the training to administer it had not been completed. Will the Minister give a commitment that this will not occur with Moderna? Will he give a commitment regarding the number of vaccinators in the country? I believe 1,400 individuals have been trained and I have heard a figure of 2,000 being mooted for those who are in training. Can the Minister confirm that?

Can the Minister confirm the approximate number of total vaccinations he proposes to have within a given period, say, to the end of January or perhaps the end of February? This will give people the information and hope I believe they require in the coming weeks and months. The Minister has said repeatedly, and I accept the point, that one cannot make a plan without knowing precisely how many vaccines will arrive at any given period. However, he was in business prior to his role as a Member of this House and he is a practical person. I know he knows that people are looking for our best-case scenario. Perhaps the Members opposite will bash us over the head with it but I think the public will accept our bona fides in trying to present factual information based on what we believe will come in terms of vaccinations. That is the point my colleague and other colleagues have been making in the House throughout the afternoon. The best-case scenario is what we want to see. We want to know there will be 100,000 vaccines delivered in the next two weeks, or 200,000 or whatever it is. Let us tell people that. We know that somebody knows in the HSE. The provision of that sort of information is critical to providing the hope that the public requires.

On ICU capacity, there has been talk of 25% or thereabouts of the private healthcare provision being taken up as part of an arrangement. On the last occasion this happened, Members of the House on all sides were provided with the information. On this occasion, it happened over Christmas. I looked at my inbox, where there was no information. The only information I got was from cursory references to it by journalists. Last week, we were at the bottom of the pile. This week, we are in the middle of the pile. It shows the necessity for us to provide as much information as possible. I am a pragmatist, like Dr. Mike Ryan, who said something to the effect that perfect is the enemy of good. Somebody has to be first; somebody has to be last. I do not want to be in either of those positions but I would like to provide certainty to the people who have been kind enough to support me over the last decade in this House in my constituency and to give them the information they need. There are a few questions there, which I hope the Minister will cover in the time provided.

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