Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. More than 3,000 people in this State and nearly 5,000 people on this island have lost their lives as a consequence of, or at least with, Covid-19, and our condolences go to all of those families, and all who are still grieving in Ireland, North and South. Sadly, it is the case across the developed world that a very high proportion of people who have died from Covid, or died with Covid, were residents of nursing homes. Ireland is not unique in that regard. Even in countries where they have had a very low number of deaths, like Norway and New Zealand, for example, the majority have occurred among residents of nursing homes, care homes or rest homes, as they use the term, and it does not always mean a failing on behalf of the nursing homes or the people who work there, or the health services or the State. The truth is that people who live in nursing homes tend to be very elderly and tend to have underlying conditions and, therefore, are at higher risk of getting very sick and dying if they get coronavirus.

Once coronavirus is prevalent in the community, it is very hard to keep it out of a nursing home, in the same way that it is not possible to keep flu out of a nursing home in any given winter. For exactly this reason, because nursing home residents are at such high risk of getting sick and dying from this virus, they were the group that was prioritised for vaccination. The decision was made to prioritise two groups, nursing home residents and staff, because nursing home residents are at the highest risk of dying from the virus, and our healthcare staff, because they are at a very high risk of contracting the virus and getting sick from it, and we need them to stay well so they can staff our hospitals and nursing homes. Those two groups were prioritised ahead of anyone else. Lots of other countries gave vaccines to politicians, Government members, senior officials - you name it - ahead of nursing homes and health care staff. We took a decision in this country to prioritise our healthcare staff and nursing home residents and staff, and I believe that was the right decision.

I think it is a little simplistic and not entirely correct to say that had the vaccines started a week or two earlier in nursing homes, lives would have been saved. The Deputy cannot say that definitively. He should bear in mind it is only two or three weeks after people get the first dose that they get protection, and only two or three weeks after the second dose that they get full protection, so I do not think the Deputy can necessarily draw the conclusions that he draws.

In terms of responsibility, the decision on prioritisation was made by the National Immunisation Advisory Council, with the support of NPHET. The practical roll-out of the vaccine was carried out by the HSE and, I think, in fairness to the HSE, it has done a really good job; once it has got the vaccines, it has got them out to people. It is a shame we did not get the vaccines a month or two months earlier but we did not, and those things were not under our control.

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