Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach referred a number of times this morning to the success of the joint procurement agreement, JPA, for vaccines in Europe whereby Ireland receives 1.12% of European supplies. Could I ask him about the proposed purchase of 1 million doses of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine to be sourced directly from Romania? The purchase of this vaccine will be outside of the JPA. What oversight or allocation of resources is he considering to secure the integrity of the cold chain supply? This vaccine has to be kept at between -70°C and -90°C. There is a significant logistical difficulty in getting this done, not to mind the clinical validation of the supply. How does the Government propose to manage the process?

See this speech in context