Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I pay tribute to the HSE staff nationwide who have put huge effort into the vaccine roll-out programme, from the pharmacists reconstituting each phial to the nurses administering the vaccine and ensuring that the maximum number of doses of this precious vaccine are obtained, as well all the support staff. I am sure it is painstaking work and particularly stressful with the eyes of the whole country on them.

My first question is what consideration has been given to parents of children with high-risk medical conditions? These include children who are immunocompromised following chemotherapy or recovering from a transplant and children with additional needs who require a high level of care. Has the Minister considered the impact on the child's well-being, the difficulty in caring for those children and the very real risk to their life if their parents were to catch Covid-19? Will there be consideration for those parents and carers to be prioritised in order to protect their children, or will they have to wait?

See this speech in context