Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party wishes the Government well in the strategy the Taoiseach announced yesterday. The country needs it to deliver and we will play a constructive role in whatever way we can. We will also criticise where necessary. I hope and pray that the Government delivers with regard to the changes it made regarding the vaccine prioritisation. If not, gardaí, special needs assistants, teachers, carers, retail workers, etc. will feel very let down.

Everything that has been done and announced yesterday is based on underlining data relating to vaccines. The Government has put all its eggs in the vaccine basket. I just want to dig into the details of this data.

The statistics we have been given to date are that approximately 800,000 vaccines have been administered, with approximately 578,000 first doses and 225,000 second doses. We have also been told that all over 70s will be vaccinated by the end of May. This was meant to be the middle of May but it slipped by two weeks. Allowing for that, it will now be the end of May. This is great news but I just want to dig into the data.

We have now been told that, by the end of June, 80%, approximately 3.8 million of the population over the age of 16, will be "offered" their first vaccine. How many of them will actually get it? My wedding anniversary is in July. I am going to offer to take my wife out for dinner in a restaurant she chooses. I do not know, however, if I am actually going to be able to take her out to a restaurant in July because I do not know if they will be open.

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