Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the good work done by the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in recent months on the vaccination roll-out. I concur with Deputy Lahart's point that much of the time such work goes unacknowledged.

I would like to leave most of my time for the Ministers to respond so I will ask three brief questions. Rapid antigen testing has been a hobby horse of mine for several months. Are there any plans for a mass roll-out of such testing and to encourage its widespread use? I know it is intended to run a pilot scheme in universities and that it could possibly be in place for schools in September.

I understand a couple of hundred people who are housebound have still not been reached by the National Ambulance Service. I take it that the Minister is to contact those people in the next week. We must do that as expeditiously as possible. Could the Minister consider involving local GPs, if they can play a role?

My third question relates to the stand-by list for vaccination centres. Could the Minister clarify how those lists are currently compiled? We heard stories in recent weeks about people in schools or gardaí being contacted at short notice to avail of excess vaccines. Has the system been changed again to take age cohorts into consideration or has another process has been put in place?

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