Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps the Minister can come back to me in writing on some of the points I will make in the short time I have. There are huge issues that will be a major factor in the vaccine roll-out, one of which is the importance of access for those in rural communities. There has been a commitment for 15 mass vaccination centres in the State. I understand the logic with regard to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because of the temperature requirements, but as the other brands come on stream we need to have significantly more centres than currently planned. We will need at least one vaccination centre each county. My constituency of Laois-Offaly, which is more than 90 miles in diameter, would need at least two centres to reach into those communities. A significant challenge in reaching communities in the roll-out process will be low income groups and rural areas. We need to make the process as easy and as accessible as possible to ensure that uptake is high. The more localised we can make it, the better the uptake will be.

It is good that GPs and pharmacies are signed up and ready to go. However, we also need to maximise the vaccination teams through the use of public health nurses, Army medics and school vaccination teams during the summer. I ask the Minister to consider this proposal and to reply back to me on it, or perhaps have one of his officials do so. These three groups are qualified to vaccinate people, they are there and they can be utilised. The vaccination teams in schools have a great track record. The Minister knows this and I know this. We should try to utilise them. Will the Minister come back to me on that? The Tánaiste talked last night on television about having up to 1 million doses per month. We need to make sure that all hands are on deck in order to ensure a speedy and efficient roll-out of the vaccines.

I will now address the vaccination priority list. There are many competing groups that feel they should be prioritised due their role and their vulnerability. That is a challenge but I appreciate there has to be a pecking order. This must be based on logic, science and health. I want to address just three of the groups, the first of which is family carers, a group that has been referred to already. They really need to be higher up the pecking order. They do an important job and work with people who are in a very vulnerable position.

The second group which has been overlooked is taxi drivers who have contracts with the health services. This is a very important one. I have been contacted by a number of these people in Laois and Offaly. They transport patients between hospitals, they transport blood samples and other supplies back and forth, they bring patients to the hospitals for kidney dialysis and so on. Is the vaccination of these taxi drivers a matter that the Minister has considered? Will the Minister have his officials look at it?

The third group that must be considered is undertakers. They do a very hard and difficult job, and especially over the past ten months, which involves interacting with large numbers of people. It is very hard to avoid it. They do removals and funerals. They must go into nursing homes. There is a particular issue for undertakers when they go into private nursing homes. They have told us that if they go into a public nursing home the bodies are sealed in body bags, but in a private nursing this tends not to happen. An undertaker must go in and handle the body. Tragically, some of those undertakers have died having contracted Covid-19. I ask that the Minister consider the position of undertakers, who do a very important and difficult job.

I ask the Minister to review the priority list, and that the vaccination centres are as local as possible. There will be a better reach and a better uptake. I am aware that the Minister will not have time to respond here, but will he ask his officials to revert to me on those questions?

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