Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start by acknowledging the successful roll-out out of the vaccination programme. This morning, I had the pleasure of attending the vaccination centre at the Aviva Stadium. I acknowledge the hard work, dedication and friendliness of the front-line healthcare workers there and right across the country.

Worryingly, however, we have seen the increased transmissibility of the Delta and Delta plus variants, both in the UK and in other jurisdictions. I acknowledge that it is the objective of Government to want to reopen schools and colleges in September. It is important to remind ourselves that we must protect young people who have underlying health conditions, however.

The European Medicines Agency has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children between the ages of 12 to 16, and indeed, Belgium has already begun rolling out the programme that age cohort. Does the Government have a plan to do likewise in this State?

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