Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The situation the Deputy describes is not one we have at the moment. We are vaccinating several groups in parallel in order to make sure we are using all of the volume of all of the vaccines we get so that we have as fast and effective a programme as possible. However, it may well be the case that we will have excess vaccines as the Deputy said. Given that the countries that we could potentially swap with are in exactly the same position with the same vaccines, I doubt there would be an awful lot of room for manoeuvre. If we are in that situation, I would like to see what we can do in terms of our international obligations. We have an ethical and moral obligation to lead. We are a very small country but in things like international development we have always batted way above the average and we have led by example, even for a small country. If we have the situation the Deputy has discussed, I would like to see that we would begin to help provide vaccines to some of the poorest parts of the world. First and foremost, it is the right thing to do. Second, this has to be a global solution. It would ultimately be enlightened self-interest as well.

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