Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I have received very moving correspondence from Mike Molloy. As Deputy McDonald said, he wrote the moving piece about a year trapped in fear. It brilliantly and emotionally captured the enormous stress and strain being felt by family carers and those who care for their loved ones, which in Mike's case is his mother who has Parkinson's disease. Obviously, because of Covid-19 and the ease with which it spreads, those carers must be extremely careful in their lives so that they do not in any way inadvertently spread Covid-19 to their loved ones. The mobility of those carers is impacted. The fear that their loved ones for whom they care will contract the virus is one they live with daily. I empathise fully with the plight that Mike Molloy has articulated and conveyed so eloquently. I share many of the sentiments which he articulated in that article in respect of the need for a global approach to vaccination and his hope that the election of President Biden will in itself bring a greater unity of purpose among the global community in that regard.

Regarding the Irish context, Deputy McDonald knows the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, has given clinical advice on the cohorts and the sequencing of who is to get the vaccine first. The first group included residents of nursing homes, the staff in nursing homes and front-line healthcare workers and that is where we directed the volume of vaccines we got in quarter 1, particularly the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was key. The vaccines went to that cohort. It is now being administered those aged over 85 years old.

The Minister for Health has written to NIAC regarding re-examining that cohort and the sequencing of vaccination for those contained in the group. My understanding is that NIAC will be responding to that query today regarding sequencing those people who in its view should be prioritised for vaccinations. The overwhelming clinical view has been that senior citizens should be the first to be vaccinated because they are the most vulnerable. Equally, however, the Minister and the Government have put that request to NIAC to consider the situation, because we are of the view that those who are immunosuppressed or have particular conditions, like Parkinson's disease and cystic fibrosis, should be prioritised. Clearly, if those people contracted the virus they would be more vulnerable to severe illness and potential mortality. We are awaiting the response from NIAC in that regard, and then the Government will consider further the sequencing and order in which vaccines will be administered.

At the moment we are still very much dependent on volumes of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the cohort of those aged over 70 years old, in addition to low volumes of supplies of the Moderna vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine is being used for the remainder of the front-line healthcare workers to be vaccinated. That is where we are right now. The volumes will increase significantly in quarter 2 and we are awaiting authorisation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I understand that may happen sooner than was originally envisaged, which would give us considerable hope. I am not using the word "game changer" anymore. I used a different word as Gaeilge last night to suggest that life should change with the higher volumes of vaccines coming in and that we should be able to deal in a more timely manner with the many people in the situation of Mike's mother who need a vaccine.

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