Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is always okay to ask questions, particularly if the purpose of asking the question is to seek information. It is different when people ask questions for rhetorical reasons, namely, when they are trying to make a point rather than seeking information. We all recognise that.

As to what is happening in terms of our hospitals, there have been issues from time to time in individual hospitals and on individual days of vaccines running out and so on. By and large, however, the people who are providing our vaccines in our hospitals and healthcare settings are doing a very good job.

Sometimes, in some places and on some days, things will go awry but generally they are doing a very good job. We now expect now, certainly before the end of the month, that is, by the weekend after this, that everybody in and working in a nursing home will have been offered their first dose. They also will have had their second dose by the middle of February. It must be borne in mind that over 60% of deaths occurred to people who were residents in nursing homes and one should think of the different space we could be in within a few weeks' time when we have achieved that. We intend that all healthcare workers will have received their first and second dose by the end of February. We can then move on to the over-70s, who are the next group, and that will be done generally through GPs and pharmacies.

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