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

I am sure that the Deputy will agree that the administration of vaccines has to be a clinical issue. We are not experts in this House. I know what we would like. I have concerns about the healthcare workers. I would like them to get boosters but I have to defer to the expert advice of NIAC. We have done this throughout various vaccination programmes before the pandemic. If you stand back from it all, it gives us confidence in vaccine programmes. The fact that we achieved a 93% vaccination uptake rate in itself illustrates a degree of confidence among the general population in our vaccine decision-making process. If we were to diverge from that, no matter how tempted we might be, and start making up our own rules as we go about who should get a vaccine and when, that could damage overall confidence in the vaccination programme. In the correspondence, NIAC states that it is keeping this issue under examination.

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