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

The prioritisation is assessed by the national immunisation advisory council, NIAC, and signed off by the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET. It is based on medical need and medical risk, with those most at risk of getting sick and dying being vaccinated first. That means residents in nursing homes, with those most at risk of contracting it - healthcare workers - getting it second. We will then move on to the over-70s. We hope to start vaccinating them next month and that, by the end of March, 1 million people will have had both vaccine doses and about 400,000 will have had at least their first dose. That will include healthcare workers, nursing home residents and staff and the over-70s. I think that perhaps at that point, when those three groups are done, that might be the time for NIAC to review the prioritisation order. I do not think that anyone could doubt that those three groups are the ones who need to get it first.

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