Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have asked my Department to look into exactly that. The CMO and I had that conversation this week. It is what I want to see. The UK did it, including in Northern Ireland. The doses were in GPs' surgeries and they were able to start vaccinating the moment the vaccine was authorised. Since the vaccine is manufactured in the UK, we can get it into Ireland very quickly. As such, the additional time we would get to vaccinate would not be much, but I agree that if we can save a day here or there, we should do so. I have asked the Department to engage with the Commission and, critically, the pharmaceutical company to determine whether we can ship in doses ahead of time.

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