Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say that the updating of the technology to take account of the booster dose should be done at a time when people have had the opportunity to have that dose. We are now at a point where around 1.3 million booster doses and third doses for the immunocompromised have been administered. We are going to accelerate the roll-out of the booster vaccine significantly. The Deputy will be aware of what the Taoiseach has announced in relation to the extended opening hours of the centres, for example, and the new centres that are going to be opened in the coming days. We very much welcome the commitment that we are getting from general practice. Almost 3,000 GPs and practice nurses took part in the IMO webinar last night. We are also getting very positive feedback from the pharmacy sector. We will see a very significant acceleration of the booster campaign. The commitment I can give is that once NPHET has met and a letter is issued by the CMO to the Minister for Health, that will be considered promptly by Government, because we recognise that people want information as quickly as it is available.

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