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

That is a fair point in the context of the beginning of the next academic year. The target is to administer the first dose of the vaccine to 80% of adults by the end of June and that 70% will be fully vaccinated by the end of July. By July and August, therefore, we will be dealing with the latter end of the vaccination programme. With the supplies coming in we are in a good position to achieve that. The more important point is that those who are older or who may be vulnerable due to particular conditions - I refer here to teachers, childcare workers, bus drivers, factory workers, retail workers and a range of other key workers - had not yet been prioritised one over the other. There is a great deal of merit in saying that those who are most vulnerable in those key worker categories will be brought up the queue now and vaccinated earlier. This is one of the outcomes of this. This is the advice from the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC.

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