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

It is incredible that the Deputy can stand up and speak in the manner in which she has done. This is exactly the scheme that was designed in the North, to which Sinn Féin was a party and which it implemented. The latter is a scheme based on age. We are taking medical and clinical advice in respect of this change. We want to vaccinate people as fast as we possibly can. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Higher volumes of vaccines are coming in. We want to make sure that the most vulnerable of all workers and key workers are vaccinated first. It must be remembered that the prioritisation of the different categories of key workers had not been identified. Such workers range right across the board, from childcare workers to bus drivers, to taxi drivers - you name it. The Deputy should not pretend that it is all simple and easy. It is more important to take the clinical advice which, on the basis of the reviews taken, is telling us that age is the most determinant factor in whether a person gets sick or severely ill or can die. We can get older childcare workers and older teachers, for example, vaccinated much faster in this way.

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