Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his questions. The over-85 cohort has been substantially completed but there is no doubt that across our country there will be people in that age group who are still waiting. Deputy Higgins, for example, said earlier that there is a GP in her constituency who is refusing to vaccinate his patients who are over 70 and that alternative arrangements need to be put in place. Similarly, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has given a lot of detail in this session about housebound people, the majority of whom have now been vaccinated, although not all of them. Can I tell Deputy Tóibín that every single person over 85 has been vaccinated? No, I cannot. What I can say is that the vast majority have been vaccinated. There is a relatively small number, some of whom are housebound, outstanding. If there are others, like those referred to by Deputy Higgins, they must be prioritised.

I will provide a note to the Deputy on legal cases. On the resumption of health services, Deputy Tóibín and I discussed this the last time we interacted in the Dáil and I wholeheartedly agree with him. In fact, I had a meeting yesterday with the chief executive of the HSE and one of the items we discussed was the resumption of services. All I can tell the Deputy, and I hope he believes the good intent of the Department and the HSE, is that we are acutely aware that so much important healthcare had to be paused during the pandemic. Many essential services have continued but we want to get them all back up and running as quickly as possible.

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