Results 32,181-32,200 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for her questions. With regards to the vaccination centre for Drogheda, I will take that back to the HSE later today. Deputy O'Dowd has asked the same question. The short answer on the other questions is there are not precise numbers that public health follows. There is no single measure or metric in terms of the level of cases, the level of transmission or the...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the question. I have a different view on his analysis on zero Covid and test and trace but I know that is not what he wants to discuss. My view is we need to be very careful right now. We are in a slightly risky position in that all of the indicators are very positive but we are not through this, to respond to the Deputy's point. There is a risk that too many of us...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: There is a substantial amount of money in the budget for this year in various different places. There is a contingency fund, which is a central Government fund, and then there is a significant amount in the health budget. An awful lot of the activities involved in the vaccination programme are being funded out of that such as testing, tracing, genome sequencing and pop-up walk-in centres....

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The situation the Deputy describes is not one we have at the moment. We are vaccinating several groups in parallel in order to make sure we are using all of the volume of all of the vaccines we get so that we have as fast and effective a programme as possible. However, it may well be the case that we will have excess vaccines as the Deputy said. Given that the countries that we could...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputies for their support for the vaccine programme. I will feed in Deputy O’Dowd’s question on the Drogheda Institute of Further Education. Deputies Pádraig O’Sullivan and O’Connor both referenced rapid testing. I appointed the expert group and launched the report some time ago. It is being embraced by various Departments, including the...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: Would the Deputy mind sending me on the details? I will ask the relevant officials directly.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the various questions. I will answer the last question first. Several people have come to me with the exact same question on those over 60 with a history of blood clotting and I put it to public health officials. I want to be careful not to give medical advice as I am not a medic but the answer I got back was that AstraZeneca is safe regardless of any such history....

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank all three Deputies for their very supportive comments on the vaccine programme and all those working on it. Deputy McGuinness asked, as several Deputies have, what the position would be for those who have already received the first dose of the mRNA vaccines. If NIAC recommends to me that we extend the four-week interval to eight weeks or 12 weeks, for example, what will happen to...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for her questions. She asked about the multiple changes causing confusion. The advice we are getting in a very fast-moving programme is changing. The advice we are getting from the EMA is changing. The advice we get from NIAC is changing. The delivery schedules we get are changing. We have a choice. We can listen to the experts and adjust our programme to ensure it...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: At this point we must wait to see whether the vaccines come in. While the Deputy quite rightly points out that there have been very significant volumes moving around, they are only moving by a week or two. Thus, for April, May and June we are due to receive just over 800,000 doses of AstraZeneca and while the deliveries are moving by a week here and there, the task force, HSE and the...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. For reasons we all understand, we take North-South co-operation seriously, no more so than on this issue. The closer we can have to an all-island approach to this, the better. I will have to see Mr. Swann's comments for myself. However, there is a good and constructive ongoing relationship. Mr. Swann and I recently held a health sectorial meeting for the...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for his kind words on the programme and his questions. There are several cohorts which are either fully or partly using AstraZeneca, including cohort 2 which is healthcare workers of all ages. They will be getting their second dose. NIAC has put a 16-week interval in place for people under 60 with no underlying conditions. Quite a number of people in cohort 4 have had...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy for the solidarity and support in people sticking with the measures. We are in a slightly cautious space right now where more and more people believe that we are through it, whereas we are not. We are getting much closer so I thank the Deputy for his words on that. My latest figures are from the task force on Monday. I believe they were with him the following day....

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: My understanding is exactly that. There will be a detailed report, per vaccine, for everything that has arrived week by week.

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: It is an excellent question. In fact, yesterday India had in excess of 300,000 cases. I believe it is the highest number of daily cases for any country since Covid-19 arrived. It is absolutely heartbreaking. The team that advises the CMO met yesterday for this week's review. The deputy CMO and I have spoken directly about India and I expect a recommendation on it this week. To answer...

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the opportunity to update the House on Ireland’s Covid-19 vaccination programme. There has been much progress since we last discussed it. We hit the milestone of 1 million vaccines administered, and now more than 1.2 million vaccines have been administered. The vast majority of those living and working in long-term residential care have been fully vaccinated. First...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medicinal Products (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The HSE has statutory responsibility for decisions on pricing and reimbursement of medicines under the community drugs schemes, in accordance with the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013. In line with the 2013 Health Act and the national framework agreed with industry, if a company would like a medicine to be reimbursed by the HSE, the company must submit an application...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The Health Act 1947, as amended, provides that all persons arriving in Ireland from a designated state, or having travelled through a designated state in the previous 14 days, are required to undergo mandatory quarantine in a designated facility unless they are an exempted traveller under the Act. All applicable travellers must reserve and pay for a place in mandatory hotel quarantine. ...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Aids and Appliances (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (22 Apr 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I propose to take Questions Nos. 128, 129 and 135 together. Mandatory hotel quarantine has been introduced as one element of Ireland’s public health measures to combat the transmission of COVID-19 variants of concern. The Health Act 1947, as amended, provides that all persons arriving in Ireland from a designated state, or having travelled through a designated state in the previous 14...