Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his questions. With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for which authorisation is being sought today, I can confirm that we have advance purchased 2.19 million doses. Its great advantage is that it is a single-dose vaccine and so that amount on its own would vaccinate almost half the population. There is very strong procurement in place. However, the Deputy asked the second relevant question, that is, when the vaccine will be delivered. On the basis of how unreliable one of the pharmaceutical companies has been, I want to wait and see in that regard. Obviously, we have month-by-month agreements in place. I think we need to make sure these agreements come in on target before we get into too much detail.

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