Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cullinane for the question and for his remarks. The information I have is that a very small number of EU countries are looking at going outside the EU process. The Deputy referenced Hungary, for example. My understanding is that they have elected to use a vaccine that has not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency, EMA. I would hope one thing we would all agree on in the House is that, regardless of where the vaccines come from, we would stick to vaccines that are authorised by the EMA. It is a very small number.

If the Deputy looks at the table of countries in the EU and the total doses administered per head of population, he will find that Ireland has been consistently very close to the top. That is because we are getting them out as quickly as they are coming in and we are drawing down the total number of vaccines that are available to us through the process. As I stated in my opening remarks, we have now approved advance purchase of nearly 18.5 million doses. However, the Deputy's question is a reasonable one, and one I have engaged with the task force on as well to see if there are legitimate mechanisms in parallel with the EU process whereby we could secure vaccines that are validated and have been authorised by the EU.

It is worth restating the process we are going through so far. I know there is frustration all around the world in that everybody wants many vaccines as quickly as possible. It has given us access to a level of vaccine which, many people tell me, simply would not have been possible if we had tried to proceed on our own.

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