Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I thought it was in excess of 10,000. It will be great to get that information.

I want to highlight a couple of concerns that are being raised with me and, I have no doubt, with every other Deputy. I will give three examples. First, there is a single mother in my area with an immunocompromised child. The mother herself is young and fit but she cannot afford to become ill as she is the child's only carer. She does not know when she will be vaccinated. There is a couple caring for their young daughter with leukaemia. Their support system is gone because of Covid and they are now terrified of catching Covid and passing it on to their daughter. Of course, they too are young and healthy, so they are at the end of the queue in that sense. As carers, they will be prioritised but they do not know where, how and when. Finally, I have constituents with chronic fatigue syndrome who, if infected, are at severe risk of serious relapse. Their condition is not mentioned in the roll-out plan, even though it is classified as a neurological condition. Where can I get answers for those patients?

My bigger issue generally is about being able to get answers for my constituents without having to come in here and ask the Minister directly, or to badger him, his adviser or his private secretary. I cannot get a response from my CHO, and the HSE helpline refers me back to the vaccine roll-out plan. Any parliamentary question with the word “vaccine” in it seems to get a fairly generic response linking me back to the HSE website, so there is no point in me reading it out. I want to get answers for people, or at least answers that say, “We do not know yet, but...” Can the Minister please tell me where to get good answers?

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