Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his contribution. With regard to his first question on Irish citizens abroad in service to the State, I will ask for an update on that and will make sure it is brought to him. On the engagement of the State with the EU at various levels, that is absolutely happening. We are part of the process whereby the Commission is engaging with AstraZeneca and there are contacts at an official level. As well as that, we are not just engaging with but are part of the European Medicines Agency. Very serious consideration and decisions are going on there about AstraZeneca and not only are we engaging with it but we are part of that process through our own agency, the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. I assure the Deputy that the State is very much involved at the relevant levels. I have raised the issue and the Taoiseach raised it at a Council meeting last week as well.

There are two issues with AstraZeneca, which are our priorities. First is maximising the supply. What we and the Commission want is for the company to deliver according to what was agreed. The second issue is getting the supply in here as early as possible. I fully agree with the Deputy that we cannot go on our own. People who are advocating that are either being deliberately mischievous or are just honestly mistaken about what Ireland as a very small country on its own would be able to procure in a very competitive global market. I will supply the Deputy with a table on this matter. Through the EU advance purchase arrangement we have pre-purchased 14.4 vaccine million doses. AstraZeneca will not disappear and we will start receiving its vaccine very soon, but even if, hypothetically, we got no AstraZeneca vaccines, of which we have pre-ordered 3.3 million, we would still have over 11 million doses of other vaccines. That is absolutely the way to go.

See this speech in context