Results 13,441-13,460 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: In answering the question, there is nothing that I or the HSE would like to do more than to be able to say "Here is our week-by-week allocation. Here is what is coming in, here is what is coming in month by month and here is how that feeds into all the various priority groups" and then to be able to put up a simple calculator or drop a document into homes which would give people, in light of...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputies for the questions. I assure them that the vaccination task force and the HSE share the frustration behind the questions. Everyone here is representing their constituents and the questions people are asking them. I will lay out for Deputy Farrell what we know. We know that on Sunday week, our target is to have vaccinated 140,000 people. That is split 50:50 between...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: For most people, that includes both doses, but the Deputy will appreciate that there will be a three-week gap. For those we start reaching in the last three weeks of March, their second doses will spill into weeks 1, 2 and 3 of April.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Our assumptions might not all come to pass, but to give people a sense of what might be possible, we are assuming that the AstraZeneca vaccine will be authorised on 29 January and that we will begin to get amounts of it quickly. We are planning on several hundred thousand doses within quarter 1. Although it might not come to pass, we are also planning on the number of weekly Pfizer doses...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Of the 300 million, the EU has confirmed the first 200 million. Yesterday, the Cabinet agreed to buy into that. We will get 1.1% of it. It will be the third tranche, as it were. There was the original Pfizer amount under the advanced purchase agreement, APA, and we got an additional amount through an opt-in. What was agreed yesterday was a third amount. Under the schedule we have, that...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I have asked my Department to look into exactly that. The CMO and I had that conversation this week. It is what I want to see. The UK did it, including in Northern Ireland. The doses were in GPs' surgeries and they were able to start vaccinating the moment the vaccine was authorised. Since the vaccine is manufactured in the UK, we can get it into Ireland very quickly. As such, the...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Will I write to the Deputy?

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Will the Deputy clarify which screening services she is referencing?

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Urgent non-Covid care is being kept open, including referral clinics for urgent cancer care and urgent screening. The situation the Deputy described sounds distressing. I have no doubt that the clinicians involved would not want that to happen. Unfortunately, with the system under this level of pressure, they are probably having to make decisions that they normally would not. We need to...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I acknowledge his strong and ongoing position on travel measures. As he will be aware, we had a full travel ban between Britain, South Africa and here. That has now been changed. There were two steps. The first was to bring in a mandatory requirement for a clear or negative PCR test up to 72 hours before travel. On top of that, critically, when a person travels here,...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will contact the HPSC today on that, absolutely.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. On critical care and ICUs, she is absolutely correct. The hospital system is under severe pressure. It will get worse before it gets better. We know it will get better because we are beginning to see the effect of the measures in place. We are beginning to see the cases go down but it is essential we maintain that at a tight level so that they go down as fast as...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I join wholeheartedly with the Deputy in his support of the staff and healthcare professionals in Letterkenny University Hospital. They dealt with the serious pressure point they had and which we were all watching within a matter of hours. Donegal has done well. As the Deputy noted, the figures were right at the top of the county table recently. As for the figures I have been sent for...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: On current expectation, I want to provide as much information as possible for the same reason that we all want that information. We only have two authorised vaccines. We are looking to put in place figures that are reasonable as quickly as possible. There are ongoing conversations with the pharmaceutical companies and figures are moving around a lot but I take the Deputy's point. On the...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Does the Deputy mean the portal where people will be able to sign up?

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: It is being worked on at present. There are many different factors at play including GPs, pharmacists, local clinical judgment, the protocols etc.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The IT system is active at present through the long-term residential care and with the front-line healthcare workers. There is another piece to it, which we do not need yet but we hope to need very quickly, which is the portal. That will be ready very soon and certainly well before it is needed when the vaccination schedules increase.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I agree they have been treated as the poor cousins in public health. I want to see them having consultant status. It is moving quickly. There has been much work done between my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Obviously, these are contractual. It is a very significant increase in pay and, as the Deputy will be aware, these issues must be syndicated at a...

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I will revert in writing if the Leas-Cheann Comhairle wants.

Covid-19 (Health): Statements and Questions and Answers (13 Jan 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Bruton for his questions. I will try and go through them quickly. The Deputy asked can we arrange briefings on the vaccination programme. Absolutely. We had two briefings last week for the Oireachtas. We had one for party leaders. We had another for Health spokespersons. I hope the Deputy has been getting the regular updates from me which I have been sending out to all...