Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The advance purchase with AstraZeneca is for 3.3 million doses. I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy that it is a game changer. Because of the temperatures, we can get it straight out to GPs, pharmacies and potentially others. The quarter 1 volume is approximately 600,000 doses. It is a two-dose regime, so that will be about 300,000 people. At present, the advance purchase agreement, APA, is for a monthly delivery. We are getting vaccine once a week from Pfizer and once a fortnight from Moderna at the moment, and the indication is that the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive once a month, in quite large quantities. The advance purchase agreement is written with us and all other EU member states such that the first batch will arrive in mid-February. We expect to have authorisation on 29 January, so we are working with AstraZeneca and the European Commission to try to bring forward the delivery. That may not be possible, however, because anything that is brought forward has to be done on a full Commission basis. A country cannot get special treatment as a single member state. My view is that having the vaccine authorised on 29 January and getting it in according to the original APA is certainly not what we want to happen. We are trying to bring that forward as much as possible.

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