Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Surely the Minister has that information instantaneously. What sort of an organisation would not know who it has vaccinated? That information must be provided, otherwise we have bigger problems here. It does not make any sense that we do not know how many Covid-19-facing front-line workers have been vaccinated in University Hospital Limerick, UHL, or the Coombe or any other hospital in this country. It is worrying that the Minister cannot provide those statistics.

As I have limited time, I will ask a few other questions. Regarding the volume of people who are to be vaccinated, we now know that we will not hit the targets for March. The Minister did not say that but I am going to take it in respect of the 700,000 people. Is the Minister still of the belief that we can have every citizen in this country vaccinated by September?

Turning to the role of the Minister, I appreciate that he is under severe pressure. I can see it this morning and it is not something I am comfortable with, to be honest. I appreciate it. The Minister is now in charge of quarantining, vaccinations and everything else in the area of health. I do not believe that the Minister and his Department should be in charge of quarantining; it should be the Department of Justice. Does the Minister believe that all three jobs should be done from his Department? I have nothing against the Minister personally. When it comes to the volumes of people being vaccinated, does the Minister think that people over 70 years old will be reached in the timeframe which he has stated previously? Turning to the nursing homes, I implore the Minister to not forget people in other elderly residential settings, such as people in assisted living etc.. Those settings are forgotten about at times.

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