Results 34,081-34,100 of 49,836 for speaker:Stephen Donnelly

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 (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: I thank the Deputy for that. On his previous point, I am publishing right now for the Oireachtas the deliveries to date so that, by the end of or even during this session, the latest figures, I believe for the start of this week, will be available. I certainly would like to see that published weekly for the very reasons given by the Deputy. As to the GPs, there are approximately 1,300...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. The target for the first dose for the over-85s was for the vast majority of them to have been done by the end of this week. There are a small number of GP practices, for the reasons I have just given, which did not receive their deliveries this week, and they will get them next week. On the point, which the Deputy has raised before, about people who are housebound,...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank the Deputy. Yes is the answer. We have a provisional schedule week by week for all of the vaccines. The problem, as we are all becoming painfully aware, is that while the schedules for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have broadly come on time - there were one or two changes to the Pfizer schedule which we got at late notice, but by and large they have been coming in on time - there...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I thank Deputy Cullinane for the question and for his remarks. The information I have is that a very small number of EU countries are looking at going outside the EU process. The Deputy referenced Hungary, for example. My understanding is that they have elected to use a vaccine that has not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency, EMA. I would hope one thing we would all agree on...

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I certainly can commit to talking to the task force and the HSE about this. If I may, I will respectfully push back a little here. I take Deputy Cullinane's point. He is asking about supply coming in and we will look at that. In terms of the doses administered, in fairness to the people who are running the programme, the House asked for weekly numbers and then daily numbers. I committed...

Road Traffic (Amendment) (Personal Light Electric Vehicles) Bill 2021: First Stage (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: No.

Covid-19 Vaccine Roll-out Programme: Statements (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I welcome the opportunity to discuss the vaccine roll-out with the House. By the end of this week, approximately 500,000 vaccine doses will have been administered. Our aim has been and remains to administer vaccines as they arrive into the country, while maintaining a small buffer to ensure people get their second dose as scheduled. This aim is being met. At the start of this week, we...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Covid-19 Pandemic (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: I propose to take Questions Nos. 176, 202 and 203 together. As has been the case throughout this pandemic, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) considers a range of different indicators of disease and compliance, and considers those indicators in context, when making its recommendations to Government. The public health measures in place at any level of the the Government's...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Medical Cards (4 Mar 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: Health and Social Care Professionals (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: In relation to the particular query raised I have asked CORU (the Health and Social Care Professional Council) to respond to the Deputy directly.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Vaccination Programme (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Strategy sets out a provisional list of groups for vaccination. The Strategy was developed by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) and my Department, endorsed by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), and approved by Government on 8 December 2020. Vaccine allocation is a matter for my Department and further information is available...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Ophthalmology Services (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: It is recognised that waiting times for scheduled appointments and procedures have been impacted in the last year as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The HSE is currently recommending that only critical time dependent elective procedures are undertaken at this time due to the on-going and significant increased demand for bed capacity related to Covid-19. This decision was made...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Ophthalmology Services (4 Mar 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: Vaccination Programme (4 Mar 2021)

Stephen Donnelly: The COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Strategy sets out a provisional list of groups for vaccination. The Strategy was developed by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) and my Department, endorsed by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), and approved by Government on 8 December 2020. Vaccine allocation is a matter for my Department and further information is available...