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

Will the Minister sort out the issue of recruitment of vaccinators? There are huge problems and we are all getting complaints about it. The application form is 14 pages long. No phone number is available for people to ring to clarify any point. People are complaining about their details getting lost. They are also complaining that they are repeatedly being asked the same questions for the same information. It is hard to see why on earth there are these glitches in the recruitment process. Will the Minister sort them out? We cannot afford any more problems in this area.

The Minister undertook to provide a daily briefing to Members of the House. We got one yesterday but it was the first one we had received in eight days. What is the reason for this? Why has the Minister not been able to live up to the commitment he gave to provide a daily briefing?

I want to ask about the delivery of the vaccines to this country. I have asked the Minister repeatedly to provide data on a daily basis about vaccines in and vaccines out. We should have this information per day. The Minister will not do this. He has said he will provide it on a weekly basis but it has not yet been provided on the data hub. When will the Minister do this? Will he reconsider providing the information on a daily basis so there is absolute transparency about this?

The Taoiseach said the target for the number of vaccines to be administered by the end of March would be 1.25 million. This was then revised by Paul Reid who said it would be 1.1 million. I cannot see any way this target can be reached. In the first three weeks of the month of March, 680,000 vaccines were provided. There is a huge gap to be made up if we are to reach the target. Is there now a revised target for the month of March for vaccines administered?

My next question relates to the need for a revised forecast for the second and third quarters of the year. The only figures we have are those in the document The Path Ahead, which is very much outdated at this stage. Will the Minister provide a revised supply forecast for the second and third quarters of the year?

My next question is on those aged over 70. It was announced that vaccination of those aged over 75 would be started this week and people were delighted about it. I have come across a couple of instances where the day before, by chance, people aged between 75 and 77 discovered that only enough vaccine was delivered to the GP for those aged 78 and 79 to be vaccinated. Will the Minister be clearer about his messaging? He is raising people's hopes and then those hopes are dashed a few days later. Will the Minister clarify this? Why did he say those aged over 75 would be vaccinated? He needs to be much more careful about this.

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