Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today is a positive, welcome and good day for us. The vaccine has arrived and roll-out has begun in Ireland. When one thinks of where we were three or six months ago and considers what people have endured and suffered over the course of the pandemic, even the fact that we are able to say that is really uplifting. We did say that we should never lose hope and this morning, in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Sister Joanna Sloan received the Pfizer vaccine. She is a nurse who has worked on the front line and who will, I have no doubt, continue to do so after having received the vaccine.

I take the opportunity to again commend our front-line healthcare workers and all of those who stepped into the bearna bhaoil and put their bodies, health and families at risk in order to help, assist, support and save many others. That must be acknowledged and commended and we must thank them for this again this morning.

While I appreciate that it will be another few weeks before we start to see the roll-out of the vaccine in this part of the country, it would be timely for the Minister for Health to come before the House for statements on the effective, efficient and equitable roll-out of the vaccine in this State, if not next week then as soon as possible upon our return in the new year. I was very uplifted on my car journey down this morning when listening to the reports from the Royal Victoria Hospital. It is timely to hear from the Minister about the roll-out in this State.

I will finish by agreeing with the sentiments expressed around the precarious time we are now in with regard to Brexit. As I committed to doing, I again call on Members to remain as steadfast and collegiate as possible with regard to the broader political and societal ramifications of Brexit, although I do not mean to take away from the points raised about legislation passing through this House. It is really at a crucial and critical stage and we must stand together to ensure that the fundamental commitments made by not only the Irish Government, but Irish political life, to protect the Good Friday Agreement, to defend citizens' rights and to ensure that there is not return to a hard border on the island are all maintained.