Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Absolutely. I thank all three Deputies for their questions. On Deputy Niamh Smyth's questions, paramedics are included in the first group and are being vaccinated now as front-line healthcare workers. All three Deputies asked about people with underlying conditions. As we discussed earlier, very detailed work is being done by the national immunisation advisory committee to look at that issue. We are all agreed on the matter of people within the group with underlying conditions who are very high-risk. That is being looked at right now and I have asked the Department to do a review of it.

I hope to be able to report to colleagues on that next week.

In terms of the vaccination centres, the situation is as follows. There are 34 vaccination centres being worked on by the HSE. The aim is to have these ready by mid-March. They will be needed in quarter 2. Some of them may be used by GPs before they are used for the next phase, when there will be much higher volumes. On the questions regarding pharmacies, the two issues are related. An operational decision was taken by the HSE to use the GP network to vaccinate those who are 70 and older. Critically, that is not forecast to cause any delays. Again, the principle that is being used is that the only constraint on administering the vaccines is the supply of vaccines into the country. I can commit to colleagues that if it was the case that the GP network was not capable of handling the volume coming through, we would immediately look to expand upon that. The thinking is that the pharmacists will be essential to this programme. We have the deal in place for the pharmacists. If we get the supply in, the volumes will increase considerably. This is where the pharmacists will come in.

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