Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure many Deputies were contacted by a lecturer in Irish studies in the University of Liverpool during the week. I felt like writing back to him because anyone who wants to understand the inequalities in Irish healthcare would feel the lack of a proper system such as a national health service has been highlighted in the vaccine roll-out. I understand that pandemics highlight inequality. People who are housebound due to ill health have been contacting my office in Tralee as they have not received a vaccine. Their daughters have been contacting us and their GPs. The GPs told them to go to the HSE, and the HSE said to go to the National Ambulance Service. That roll-out has not worked out well for them.

If people are aligned to a large GP practice, they are top of the queue, but if they live in a rural area or are attached to a small practice, it has been suggested they buddy up with another practice. That is okay for organising a school tour to Fota Island but it is not good enough for getting a vaccine rolled out in a fair way. GPs feel the system was not managed. There was no system for pairing or buddying up, there was no guidance and there was nobody available to listen to them when they needed it most. Desperate patients contacting us is not good enough. The supply chain has not worked well enough. There is too much confusion, and when there were problems in the supply chain, the flaws in the Government's roll-out were exposed badly. What has the Government learned from the initial stage of the roll-out? What steps have been taken to ensure a smoother roll-out? What steps are being taken to ensure there is communication with patients and members of the public when they go to access the vaccine into the future?

The vision of reopening has to be apparent to people. The communication must be there so people can be motivated to keep going with all the restrictions.

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