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

The Deputy is absolutely right to raise the issue of nursing homes. In the first and second waves of the infection the majority of deaths that occurred in Ireland as a consequence of Covid-19 involved people who were residents of nursing homes. There has been a similar pattern across the developed world. It is mainly due to fact that the people who are living in nursing homes tend to be elderly and frail in health terms. That is why we have prioritised vaccinating nursing home residents and staff, all of whom will have had or been offered their first dose by next weekend and will have been offered their second dose by the middle of February.

We are putting them first in this regard.

I did not mean to gloss over the question on Be On Call for Ireland, if that is what I did. I am just not up to date on the situation in that regard. I will check it out with the Minister for Health. When I was up to date on it a few months ago, we ran into real issues with it, in that a large number of people volunteered to be available but they were not necessarily qualified or resident in the State.

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