Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----from antibodies. We cannot ignore that reality. I prefer the cautious approach and when we said we wanted to vaccinate healthcare workers, it was, incidentally, warmly received in hospitals and the relief there and in nursing homes was overwhelming and could be seen when people were vaccinated. I am not sure we are talking about a huge cohort of people here in any event.

There are the two issues: the compulsory issue and the issue on antibodies. I would err on the side of caution on the antibody question and defer to medical advice and vaccinate, particularly people working in healthcare and particularly in frontline healthcare settings. We are still learning about this virus, about its new variants, and so on.

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