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

Sometimes I question the value of these sessions because we do not get any new information. We frequently ask for information and the Minister promises to send us notes, but the notes do not arrive. For example, last week, I asked about the Moderna vaccine and the fact that, at that point, less than a quarter of Moderna deliveries to this country had been administered. I never got an answer on that. I appeal to the Minister to be much more forthcoming in giving information and data generally. All of this should be open-source information. There is no reason that the Minister should be hiding any of it. It is in everybody's interest that he is absolutely clear about the numbers that have been delivered here and the numbers that have been administered. It is only through that kind of levelling with people that they will have confidence in the programme.

It took the Minister a very long time to commit to publishing the daily figures for vaccines administered. It took a long time to get him to tell us how many are arriving here on a weekly basis. That information is coming now by way of press statement but it needs to go up on the data hub. I ask the Minister just to be clear and open about this. There has been a mishandling of the information coming out in regard to the different cohorts. Three weeks ago, the Minister announced that over-70s would be vaccinated. Three weeks later, the administration of vaccines to the over-85s is only just finishing. There is a whole cohort of people who expected to have got their vaccination by now. By not providing clear information and schedules, the Minister is raising people's expectations.

I want him to try to be clearer about the scheduling of vaccines for the two cohorts in respect of which he has given a commitment, namely, cohorts 3 and 4. Cohort 3 is people aged between 70 and 85 and there are 407,500 of them. Can the Minister set out a schedule for when the different subgroups within that age cohort will be vaccinated, showing, as of now, what the expectation is in this regard? The other very important cohort is cohort 4, which comprises the 160,000 people with underlying conditions that carry a very high risk in regard to Covid infection. We were told that 10,000 of them will be vaccinated in the first week. When are the other 150,000 going to be done? Again, we need a schedule for that. The over-70s and those with serious conditions are waiting very anxiously to find out when they will be vaccinated.

The generic messaging from the Minister is only raising people's expectations. He needs to be clearer on when people are likely to be vaccinated.

I wish to ask the Minister about what we have seen between the first and second doses in the past ten days. The ratio is 9:1 and that is a change. Is that a change in policy or is it a result of timing?

The Minister promised mass vaccination in the second quarter. That means increasing from the current average of 12,000 a day, although it has to be said that for the last day reported, which was 7 March, the figure was only 2,699, which is abysmally low. The average is 12,000 a day now. The programme will have to ramp up to between 35,000 and 40,000 per day. We have not yet seen the plan for that for the second quarter. Will the Minister commit to publishing that plan?

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