Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming before the House. I welcome the move by the Department and by NIAC for immunosuppressed individuals across the State. That was the right decision. I do not want to perpetuate some of the doom and gloom from the course of this debate, but I thank the Minister for that because it was absolutely necessary. Deputy Shortall referred to the issue of providing clarity for persons under the age of 70, for example. The scenario at the moment is that people between the ages of 65 and 69 who have no conditions are in cohort No. 6, while some younger people who are high risk are in cohort No. 7. Will the Minister please clarify that?

I did a straw poll in my constituency on how GPs felt about it. From the feedback of seven or eight surgeries we contacted today, all but one had a complaint. That was about their administrative staff not being vaccinated. It was my understanding that they were to be vaccinated. We will provide them with clarity on that and perhaps the Minister will comment. In general terms they stated that their position on the information that was made available to them was a qualified "Fine". I think that is a compliment so I will take it as such.

I appreciate all the responses given by the Minister to my colleagues over the last hour. As Deputy Cowen said, it is necessary for us to recognise that when we have this vaccine in stock it is provided to citizens across the State and that there is very little vaccine sitting in fridges. That is to be welcomed. More than 9,000 individuals have been vaccinated in the State, presumably in addition to other personnel. I do think we will be able to hit those targets of 250,000 per week a month from now. This is welcome.

The Minister may wish to comment on the fact we are being constantly benchmarked with the UK, which is very unfortunate. Are there lessons to be learned from the UK procurement process about when the vaccines were ordered versus other nations such as the US and the UK, who we have always looked to? It is only right that we should address that.

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