Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Taoiseach on the importance of people getting the booster. I received mine about ten days ago. In the same week it was announced walk-ins would be accommodated. People in the queue I was in at Citywest were being told only people with appointments would receive a booster. The wait that day was about three and a half hours. The following day it was five hours. Cork City Hall and Croke Park were also reporting long queues. It is, therefore, understandable people would make appointments with their pharmacy instead. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said that in the week commencing 22 November, there were 208,000 appointments for boosters but only 80,000 people turned up and last week there were 180,000 appointments but only 93,000 people turned up. The obvious question that arises is why there were approximately 30,000 fewer appointments last week than the previous week. Yesterday the Taoiseach failed to mention the ongoing problems with the booking system. Eligible people can now get boosters from their GPs, pharmacies or, indeed, a vaccination centre. The only problem is the systems do not seem to be capable of talking to each other. People in the eligible groups for a booster but who have had Covid in the past six months, which makes them ineligible, are still getting appointments. Is the system capable of picking that up? Instead of blaming people for not turning up to their appointments will the Taoiseach tell us what is being done to resolve the problems with the bookings system?

This is especially important given that appointments for the over-50s are coming on stream tomorrow and only 42% of the over-60s have received a booster. Will the Taoiseach tells us when he expects that cohort to be completed? Will he share with us the vaccination plan, as it is known, from now into the new year by cohort, vaccination type and timeline? That type of information would be hugely important in allying concerns about the new variant but also to give people hope for the new year, including sectors impacted on by restrictions.

I welcome that NIAC has today approved vaccines for children. When will these vaccinations commence? Where will they be administered? Will the capacity be increased in parallel with the booster campaign? Importantly, when will the information campaign for parents on vaccines for children going to start? We saw what happened when the Government brought in the mandatory mask wearing for schools overnight and then threatened to exclude children for non-compliance without first explaining the basics of why it was deemed necessary. Does the Government have an information campaign ready to go to explain the benefits of vaccines for children so parents have all the facts they need and disinformation is not guiding their decision making?

To recap, is the number of appointments actually increasing? What is the Government doing about the system and the double bookings? Will the Government give us an indicative vaccination plan into the new year before Christmas? The information campaign is vital for parents. When will that be rolled out?

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