Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler and Rabbitte, for everything they and the Department are doing. I also thank our front-line staff. The pace of the vaccination programme is incredible. More than 80% of our adult population is expected to be vaccinated by early July. That is a success and the programme is going well. More power to everyone at the front line who is helping to deliver that.

There will still be a small percentage of people, probably younger adults, who will not have been vaccinated before the autumn period. In order that they can go back to their college and university campuses and have a decent third-level experience, one that has been cruelty denied to them by Covid, it is important that we give a place to regular antigen testing so those students can go in and out to lectures and enjoy the after-hours life of college that has been taken from them. There is a role for antigen testing. We will eventually get to full vaccination, I hope, or as close to it as possible, but in that interim period while we are waiting to get down into the young adult category, it is essential that in educational settings, we plan for antigen testing.

It looks like we will have surplus vaccines. Some 18.3 million doses of vaccines have been ordered by the State and many of them will leave Ireland and go to countries that do not have very good vaccination programmes. That makes sense because Covid is a global problem and if we do not address it globally, it will come back in new variants in wave after wave. Supply chains are now functioning well, although they were not a few months ago. With that in mind, it is important that we keep some vaccine in reserve. The epidemiological situation is good now but scientific findings change, month on month. There may be a need to go into a second phase of the vaccination programme next year and we need to keep a reserve of vaccines so we do not find ourselves going back into those pools of supplies and looking for more. We should keep a reasonable amount in reserve.

The Minister will not have time to respond to everything I am saying but I would like him to respond to the following point about vaccination portals. A number of people who hold dual citizenship have contacted me. These individuals are Irish-Americans and hold Irish and US passports. They have had one vaccine in America but the portal of registration in Ireland does not pick that up. Those people have no way of saying they were vaccinated in New York three weeks ago and need to register for a second dose in Ennis. There is no mechanism on the portal to account for people who received a vaccine in the United State in phase 1 and hope to receive a second vaccine during phase 2 in Ireland. That is a small thing but it is catching out a number of people who are falling off the edge of the system. I ask the Minister to speak to his officials after this session and, I hope, tighten up that loophole.

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