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

Deputy Paul Murphy raised a number of points. The NPHET recommendations we have adopted are, in effect, to have a very slow, steady and safe reopening and to give people some relief in respect of, for example, the 5 km restriction and other matters. We have dealt with outbreaks in meat plants. From the Deputy's political perspective, he can identify meat plants as the great evil. As far as we are concerned, they have been dealt with and there is antigen testing and serial testing in place. There is also support for workers in terms of illness pay and so on.

Regarding bringing down case numbers, that is an objective in terms of schools returning. No one expected vaccinations before 12 April. Let us all be honest in this House and not suggest that people had an expectation there would be vaccinations beyond the over-70s and the cohorts with underlying conditions. The target is to get all over-70s and the underlying condition cohorts given a first dose by mid-April and to have them all fully vaccinated by mid to late May. We are leaving nobody behind in the vaccination programme.

In respect of the points raised by Deputy Tóibín, it is not a case of moving from risk to age. Age is risk; that is the point. We can play with language but the reason the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, has decided on age, having looked at the reviews, is that it does not determine huge differences between occupational categories but it does unequivocally say that the international evidence is now clear that the older one is, the more vulnerable one is to severe illness and death if one gets Covid. There is no contradiction, as the Deputy asserted, between the behavioural issues and how one avoids getting Covid in the first instance.

On the issue raised by Deputy Barry, I again make the point that there was no expectation that people would be vaccinated before 12 April. It is wrong to suggest there was. We are not breaking any commitments in respect of the full reopening of schools on 12 April. Deputy Gannon made a fair point that before the next academic year, which is probably the more relevant timeframe, we should do everything we possibly can to ensure we have the bulk of our vaccination programme completed. I am confident of achieving that. In response to Deputy Gannon's other point, age is now the determining criterion governing the allocation of the vaccine, as I said.

See this speech in context