Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will refer the question on the An Garda Síochána to the Minister for Justice, Deputy Humphreys.

In regard to SouthDoc, I will inform the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, that it was raised here today and, as suggested by Deputy Collins, I will work with him to resolve the issue and make sure the service is restored.

We do not have a date for the citizen's assembly on drug use yet. There are a number of citizen's assemblies planned and it is on the list, so it is to be hoped we get to it soon.

On vaccines, internationally we are committing 2 million vaccines which we are donating to developing countries. We have committed a lot of money to the World Health Organization and to COVAX. I think we are getting to the point now where the supply of vaccines is not the major constraint, rather it is the ability of developing countries to have the systems on the ground, namely, having a licensing body to license it and then the infrastructure on the ground to give the vaccines. They are going to need a lot of help in that regard but I do not think supply is the issue any more in the way it was in the past. Certainly it is not the only issue.

I very much agree with Deputy Richmond's sentiment that if France can do it, why can we not. If the French can do it, we should be able to as well. It would be a very significant and very timely gesture for us to fast-track the citizenship applications of front-line workers, and even back-line workers, who helped us get to this point in the pandemic. I am sure it is administratively tricky but it is a very good idea and one I will definitely be taking up with the Minister for Justice, Deputy Humphreys, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, to see if we can do the same as France.

See this speech in context