Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the Government target, as the Deputy will be aware, I have consistently said our target is getting the vaccines out as quickly as they arrive. The latest data I have show over 96% of vaccines are being administered within seven days of arriving in the country. I would reframe the Deputy's question to ask whether sufficient supply is going to have arrived here by the end of June to have reached 80% with dose one. It is unclear if that is the case. I was on the phone to the task force this morning in order to be able to provide the most up-to-date information and there are serious concerns with the supply of the Janssen vaccine. I can give the Deputy the exact details but we have been provided with best-case and worst-case scenarios. We were due to receive in excess of 600,000 vaccines to the end of June. The worst-case scenario would see us receiving very significantly less than that and even the best-case scenario I have been given would unfortunately see us receiving considerably less. There are questions around AstraZeneca and we do not have the exact numbers. Moderna looks to be coming in on time. There has been a slight adjustment with Pfizer but the company assures us that by the end of June we will have the contracted amount. In short, it looks like we are going to get substantial under-delivery with Janssen and there are question marks as to what is going to come in from AstraZeneca.

See this speech in context