James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, sincerely for their close co-operation and help in recent days regarding the serious outbreak in east Cork and west Waterford, based around Youghal, in particular. It was an enormous challenge for our local healthcare services, schools and sports clubs to deal with that issue. I pay tribute to and compliment the HSE, the National Ambulance Service, our local GPs, the Minister and the Ministers of State. We are lucky to have the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler supporting the Minister and I am grateful for the work they are all doing.

We are moving into a positive phase in the vaccination roll-out. As we speak, 30% of adults over the age of 16, representing 1.1 million citizens, have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccination. This is a positive moment. We are hopefully reaching a tipping point where the vaccine roll-out will start to have a more meaningful impact on the level of Covid cases in the country, allowing us to further reopen society. I agree with what many Deputies said on the continued use of technology to ensure we are allowed to reopen our society. The digital green certificate for people who may wish to travel internationally is of critical importance and I hope the Department is being proactive in preparing for the implementation of such systems.

On the vaccination roll-out, I am getting positive feedback from people who have been to their local vaccination centres, whether they are attending the one in Mallow, Páirc Uí Chaoímh or the other ones around the Cork area. They are well-run and I want to pay tribute to the staff who are working in them. In fairness, there seems to be few problems. I want to concur with points made by other Deputies in the Chamber on people who are housebound. We get quite a few calls from people who are querying their status. I know the healthcare professionals in the National Ambulance Service are doing important work in that regard. I again ask the Minister, the Department and the HSE would give every support necessary to allow people to get vaccinated.

I will allow the Minister to utilise my remaining time if he wishes to answer.

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