Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the change the Government has made to the vaccination plan, as announced yesterday evening. This is both a huge and an astonishing decision that was made without prior notice and, it seems, without any consultation with the groups of front-line workers who will be affected by it. It has come as a great shock and has caused great anger for special needs assistants, SNAs, childcare workers, teachers, gardaí and workers in retail that the Taoiseach has now decided they should not be afforded some level of priority in recognition of the real exposure and heightened risk they face in contracting this virus. It is abundantly clear that the Government has changed tack because the system it has in place is not fit for purpose. We have seen many instances of the flaws and fault lines in the Government's approach but this is the most astonishing admission of failure on its part. More importantly, it has caused huge anxiety among those front-line workers. I do not know how the Taoiseach can defend or explain away the removal of priority from those groups. It is wrong and it will cause unnecessary anxiety and real worry and fear among those workers. I ask the Taoiseach to reverse the decision in this regard.

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