Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the context of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the announcement has already been made that the second dose is being brought forward. What was to have taken nine weeks, namely, the administering of the second dose, will now take five. That is happening as we speak and the HSE is engaged with that plan. Basically, we will be finishing the second dose of AstraZeneca three to four weeks earlier than was to have been the case. However, we need the necessary supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine and, in particular, the mRNA vaccines, to keep coming in over the next number of weeks in order to make progress down the age cohorts, otherwise we will delay the vaccination programme itself. As the Deputy knows, this is because of the age restrictions when it comes to administering the AstraZeneca and Jansen vaccines.

NIAC has given recommendations in that regard to the HSE.

We must also bear in mind that the vaccination programme is working. What we have learned is that once we start changing or giving mixed signals, this can disrupt the vaccination programme and genuinely undermine it. I am not saying anybody wants to do that in making new suggestions or proposals. That has been the experience and it can affect vaccination take-up and so on. The vaccination programme has worked on the basis that people have received vaccines as they have become available. We are looking at approximately 4.1 million doses to be supplied by the end of quarter 2. We need to keep going. Let us not disrupt a model that is working well right now.

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