Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Deputy's comments on this being the start of a period of hope. We all obviously have a job to do here. However, I think we would speak as one in looking to the coming quarter as one of hope as vaccines roll out, cases are reduced and as we can begin to have the conversation we all want to have about returning to normality.

In terms of test and trace, travel and vaccines, we will obviously just have to disagree or agree to disagree. The testing and tracing programme is very comprehensive. We have one of the highest capacities and compare very favourably. Our international border measures are now the most comprehensive in the European Union.

As with any vaccine programme in the world, of course there have been things that we need to learn and do better. The vaccine programme I think has gone well. In terms of the numbers, we are expecting significant deliveries in the next five days or so. We do not really want to get caught up in whether it is the last week of March or the first week of April. The contracted deliveries are for the end of March. We would expect to receive in excess of 1.1 million doses.

The target then obviously is to administer those doses as they come in. Approximately 95% of vaccines are administered within seven days. For April, May and June, the delivery schedules are such that we would expect to receive in excess of one million vaccines per month.

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