Results 15,701-15,720 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I will certainly commit to speaking to the Department, the task force and the HSE about it. We all want maximum transparency and I hope the Deputy would agree that on the supply side, a real effort has been made to make the data available. The challenge is that anything we publish will change. As we in here know, it has changed repeatedly. If we take this week as an example, a figure was...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: On the issue of deliveries perhaps we can discuss it further. It would require co-operation. For example, in good faith I gave a detailed target for September and that then moved because of AstraZeneca. Within an hour I was being accused of making false promises. If we are going to use forecast information my ask back is that all of us in the House use it accordingly because it has not...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. I certainly share his desire to get as much vaccine into the country as possible. As a starting point, we would use vaccines authorised by the EMA. I can confirm the EMA has now put Sputnik on its rolling review, which is a step on the way to the manufacturers of Sputnik applying for conditional marketing authorisation. I have asked the task force to take at look at...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. With regard to a second larger vaccination centre for Limerick city and-or county, it is something that is kept under constant review for the whole country. If there is a demand for another centre one can be sourced and set up quite quickly. Remember the vaccinations centres are simply one part of the infrastructure. As we move out to the general populace, and...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: It is certainly something I can take up with the task force.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. With regard to transparency, we will always endeavour to do as much as possible. I hope the House appreciates that real efforts have been made. There are daily updates online, daily updates on the tracker app and the Oireachtas gets a daily update. In my ten years in the Dáil, I do not remember ever getting a daily update from Government on anything. While we all...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: On cohort 4, the really good news, which I have just announced today, is that for cohort 4, which is people with underlying conditions who are deemed to be at very high risk of serious illness or fatality, that is going to start next week. The details are still being worked out and I ask the House to bear with us on that. The NIAC recommendation happened very recently and from the moment it...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: The Deputy's questions are absolutely appropriate to the people he represents. The short answer on the vaccination centres is that they were operational decisions of the HSE based on population analysis. If it is the case that a second, bigger vaccination centre is appropriate for Donegal, it will be set up. I will give a commitment to the Deputy that I will ask the HSE after this debate...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I will get the Deputy a written response.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: First and foremost, the pharmacists are being vaccinated because they are front-line healthcare workers. It is more complex when it comes to other people working in the pharmacy, but if they are deemed to be within the cohort of front-line healthcare workers based on a detailed set of protocols put together by the HSE, they would be included.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: Can the Deputy give me those two figures again?
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: The deliveries to date have now been published. The Deputy will be able to get them on her telephone now or after the debate. I have asked the Department to provide regular updates. I believe daily updates could lead to a great deal of anxiety. One could see 80,000 arrive in on a single day and if one just took that day, and there are some people who will use the information to try to...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: Let me take a look. The last time I checked the majority of the Moderna doses had gone out. We will look at that. On the April date, there is absolutely a lot of focus on this. We are going from 86,000 this week up to, hopefully if the supplies come in, 250,000 in four weeks' time.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: The plan has been published. We have the 40 vaccination centres, which are the 37 centres and the three GP hubs, and the pharmacies and the GP practices. I will get a more detailed note for colleagues on exactly that. I will also revert to Deputy Shortall in writing on the rest.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: How long have I got to answer?
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I will be very quick.
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I will first address the query on cohorts and I will revert in writing on the rest. The short answer on cohorts 5, 6 and 7, and it is a fair question, is that they are in that sequence because NIAC has determined, using the clinical evidence available, that that is the prioritisation of risk in terms of vulnerability. For example, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has just pointed out...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his very constructive ideas. I will engage with him. If he would like to meet up or send me something on exactly how we might use the app that would be great. We were a world leader in terms of the app. I believe it was the first multijurisdictional app anywhere in the world and I would love to see it used more. As he knows we have put the number of doses...
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: How much time have I got? Is the Deputy sharing time?
- Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (Resumed) (4 Mar 2021)
Stephen Donnelly: I fully appreciate where the Deputy is coming from on those with cystic fibrosis. As he said, it is a relatively small cohort. NIAC looked very carefully not just at conditions but at the range of conditions and it had to make clinical judgments based on the impact that Covid appears to have on those groups. It did that with cystic fibrosis. It has identified different severities of...