Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of questions for the Minister. The questions are coming from people in my constituency who are asking when they may be vaccinated. They include, for instance, people who have cystic fibrosis and their carers, people with Down's syndrome and their carers, people who are on dialysis and people who suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. People in those four groups have been on to my office wondering whether they can be brought forward up the chain of command.

Ability West in Galway sent a submission to me which I forwarded on to the disability matters committee. The organisation is seeking a vaccination plan for its service users, their carers and their families. The people in Ability West are willing to help and engage, they have the expertise, they have the staff available as trained vaccinators, they have locations for vaccination and they have a strong network and community of disability services ready to help across the entire sector. We need to vaccinate people with disabilities, both those over and under 65 years of age, regardless of where they live. We need to vaccinate all staff in the disability services, including section 38 and section 39 organisations and all the HSE-delivered services. We also need to vaccinate family carers who are taking on the key worker role.

I have two further comments to make before I ask the Minister for a response. The first relates to firefighters. I read with interest during the week - I do not know whether it is true - that Dublin firefighters have been vaccinated on foot of an intervention by the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Firefighters living in Galway East, in Tuam, Athenry, Gort and Loughrea, do the same work. They are first responders. When will all of them be vaccinated?

Finally, we have had a lot of discussion about people coming into the country. I understand the Taoiseach told his party last night that 800 people arrived into Dublin yesterday, 397 of whom were returning from holiday. If that is still happening when we are trying to curtail and eliminate a deadly virus, questions have to be asked about how we are patrolling and controlling the exits and entries from and into this country. I ask the Minister to comment on the points I have raised.

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