Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Our priority is to maximise the availability of safe and effective vaccines for people in Ireland. I am sure the Deputy will agree that we should continue to look to the EMA as the regulator. The vaccines we use here must be deemed safe and effective, to the very highest standards, by the European regulator, as is the case with four vaccines. I can confirm that exactly the same approval process is now being gone through with the Sputnik vaccine. Of course, we are open to talking to everybody. Our only objective is to vaccinate people as quickly as possible with vaccines deemed safe and effective by our own regulators.

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