Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Neither of us expected to get to this question, so I appreciate that the Minister does not have detailed notes with him. However, it has been reported that we do not have as many vaccinators or staff as we had in the summer. Is he able to speak to that? I am not looking for numbers, but is that an issue? It may not be a big one; it may be a small one.

Second, we are following a similar vaccination pathway by prioritising older people, healthcare workers and so on, as we did initially. Has there been any kind of judgment or indications as to whether there has been any drop-off in booster take-up as opposed to the first vaccine? I would be interested to hear if there are early indications or data on that. Let us be honest: we are benchmarking our booster campaign against a very successful initial vaccination campaign. The vaccination campaign and what it has done to keep people alive cannot be overstated. We all want the booster campaign to be a success. I would be interested to hear from the Minister on those two points.

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