James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I intend to ask a few questions of the Minister, if he has time to respond. If he cannot respond to them all, perhaps he can do so in writing.

At the outset, I acknowledge this is certainly not a political issue. In fact, it is not even really a medical issue or a health issue as such. It is a supply chain management issue. It is a logistical issue. That is the challenge that we face in shipping this, gathering this and packing this around the country with the attendant storage requirements, etc. In that vein, there are sectors of industry and society, such as the hauliers, shipping companies, big pharma, distribution networks, and all sorts of private and public sector knowledge bases on this. My first question is: have they been consulted, are they on the advisory boards and are they in the room? Even within the State, I had a contact from a former Teagasc colleague last week who stated that at the time he worked there, it was the pre-eminent distribution network for agricultural supplies and samples around the country and he stated that could be tapped into again to ship vaccines and provide storage, etc., with refrigeration. There is lots of knowledge out there. Perhaps the Minister could confirm whether that is being accessed. I hope it is.

I wrote to the Minister on this second matter last week and I tabled some parliamentary questions. I note the Minister has taken up some of the suggestions. I suggested that the AstraZeneca vaccine could be shipped pre-approval to be ready to go because the approval is only about dosage. It is not about the formula. It is about what dosage to give to the patient. Another Minister has run with that since. A follow-up question is whether people can be trained in it. If there are any differences with how the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are administered, people should not only have it ready to go in the fridge but have the trained staff ready to start injecting it. That would be really helpful. Similarly, on the Pfizer vaccine, I asked in a parliamentary question last week on whether we can get six rather than five doses out of the Pfizer vaccine. That would be helpful also, if that is confirmed as a working protocol.

My next question has been raised elsewhere, but I will ask again. There are certain sectors that are a bit of a grey area. Dentistry is one that has been raised with me this morning. Dental nurses, dental hygienists and dentists themselves are in a healthcare setting. They are performing emergency work in many cases but they are not currently on any list. Family carers are another. Professional carers have been mentioned, but where do family carers, where somebody is looking after an elderly relative, a person with special needs or somebody who requires significant assistances and who maybe could not provide that assistance were he or she to get sick, sit on the list?

My next point is information. We have debated this a lot. My office, and I am sure every Member's office, is being inundated with queries, such as how one gets it, whether one presents to one's GP, or whether one goes down to the hospital and whether they call the person or whether the person calls them. Is it do not call us, we will call you? How does that work? Will it be preselection based upon age and certain criteria or do they need to make themselves known? Do they need to go online? How will that work? I appreciate it may not be quite there yet but the sooner we can get that information out there, the better. If we can tell people what to do, do they wait for the call? Do they make the call? We really need to get answers to all those questions out there as soon as possible.

I would have had a lot of exchanges with the Minister over the summer on getting the Covid statistics on the app and out there in terms of caseload and I would make the same point about the vaccines. If we can get the statistics out there with daily publication, ideally, on the app, that would help to generate confidence.

This is my last question before the Minister responds. There is some suggestion within the EU that some countries are getting the vaccine quicker than others based upon their propensity to administer it. Denmark is said to be an exemplar and it is getting more of it more quickly because it can use it. Is that holding us back to an extent? Is there any of that at play? If there is, can we address that? If there is not, the Minister might reassure the House. I thank the Minister.

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