Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, for coming to the House to reply to this issue. It is most disappointing that the Minister for Health is not present to take it, given that it concerns a health issue in Arklow in our constituency. I am disappointed and frustrated that he is not here to answer this question for the people of south Wicklow.

On 15 February 2021, the Minister for Health announced that a number of vaccination centres were going to be set up across the country.

Two of them were to be in County Wicklow, with one located in Greystones and the other in the Arklow Bay Hotel. The centre in Greystones has been operating for approximately five weeks. It has been offering some children's vaccinations and giving Covid vaccination appointments for three weeks' time. The centre in the Arklow Bay Hotel was to open on 11 May, which is today. Until now, people from Gorey, Arklow, Tinahely and throughout south Wicklow were travelling to Greystones to get their Covid vaccinations, while people from Greystones had to travel to Dublin. The plan was that the centre in the Arklow Bay Hotel would open today and people from south Wicklow and north County Wexford would access vaccinations there instead of having to travel to the north of County Wicklow.

As it transpired, the vaccination centre in Arklow did not open today. We have a situation where the Arklow Bay Hotel was contracted for a three-month period to provide vaccinations but now it seems it will not open and there will be a grand total of zero Covid vaccinations given there.

I have three questions for the Minister of State in this regard. First, how did this situation arise? Only last week, the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, was in Arklow to avail of a photo opportunity in the hotel. The story was all over the local newspapers. How are we in a situation where, less than one week later, the vaccination centre is not open, there was apparently no preparation for it to open, no one was told what was happening and we only found out today it is not opening? Second, what is the plan B for the residents of south Wicklow and north Wexford? Third, what will happen to people in the interim while a plan B is put in place?

See this speech in context