Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will respond to Deputy Murnane O'Connor in writing regarding those questions I do not get a chance to cover. Regarding the position with AstraZeneca, the European Commission is in active and pretty robust conversations with that company. Neither the Commission nor the company has yet been able to provide a firm delivery schedule for the second half of March. We are waiting on that timeline.

Many Deputies are very fairly raising the issue of family carers. Deputy Murnane O'Connor referred to members of the Garda as well, while, rightly and reasonably, reference was made to teachers in special education and cystic fibrosis patients last week, as well as many others. What I can tell the Deputy is that the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, the expert group, thought through these issues in great detail and came up with a recommended list, which was then reviewed and endorsed by the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, and ultimately signed off on by the Cabinet. That is the prioritisation with which we are going but obviously we must keep these things under review.

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