Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yes. With regard to the Moderna vaccine, the Minister said that 40,200 doses have been delivered to this country up to the end of February, yet before 28 February only 9,300 were administered. I do not know if the Minister can give me an answer today, but perhaps he will provide it to me as soon as possible. It is puzzling why that is the case.

My next question relates to what will happen when we get large quantities of vaccine. We know that 1.2 million to 1.3 million doses should be coming into the country in each month of April, May and June. We are currently administering an average of 12,500 doses per day. If 1.2 million to 1.3 million vaccine doses arrive from April, we will have to ramp that up to approximately 40,000 vaccines per day. That is a huge step up, and it is due to happen only four weeks hence. I and others would like to know what centres will be used, who the staff will be and if they are ready to roll as soon as April. Will the Minister publish a plan for the centres to be used and the staff, so we are in that position from 1 April?

The next question relates to representations we have received from the Irish Cancer Society regarding the reordering of the priority groups. In that reordering, the position of people under 64 years of age who are at high risk of severe disease has not changed. They remain in category 7. The Irish Cancer Society is concerned specifically about people with haematological cancer who have not been brought up to category 4. The society says that there is a comparable risk of death for those patients. Perhaps the Minister would clarify that. If he could send me a note on it, I would appreciate it.

The next point relates to messaging. About three weeks ago, the Minister said the vaccination of people over 70 years of age was starting. He referred to that programme again today. When the Minister says it will start with people over 70 years of age, those people expect they will be getting the vaccine shortly. However, there are sub-categories within that. It would be much more helpful if the Minister just broke it down and said vaccination was starting with people over 85 years of age or with people over 80 years of age, because it will be some time before people between 70 and 75 years of age get their vaccines. Again, the Minister should be clear about the messaging and not raise people's hopes that they are going to get it soon. There should be a little more clarity about the time the different age cohorts or different cohorts generally are likely to get the vaccine. It would be helpful if those types of forecasts could be provided.

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