John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming here this afternoon for this very important debate on the Covid-19 vaccine programme. Like many other Senators, I put on record my appreciation for our front-line workers across the health system, particularly those who have taken up roles as vaccinators over the last month and who have worked many additional hours over weekends and, in many cases, extended their shifts. We now have an initial team of 1,700 vaccinators in place and more than 4,800 people have completed the training programme. That so many are mobilised and ready to vaccinate as supplies come on stream is a testament to the work of the Minister of State's Department and the HSE.

The effectiveness of these vaccinators is, however, limited by the supply of vaccines they receive. I was concerned by the 50% reduction in the supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which obviously had an impact. I saw that impact in my own county of Waterford as University Hospital Waterford was unable to vaccinate over the last ten days. We should be thankful that vaccinations in the hospital resumed today as the Pfizer vaccine is once again in circulation.

As other Senators have mentioned, serious questions need to be answered by AstraZeneca. Yesterday, I heard the EU's health Commissioner state that the answers the company has given thus far are unsatisfactory. I concur with that. We need to find out whether the company has provided the vaccine not only to the UK but to many other countries in breach of its contractual obligations to the European Union, as has been widely suggested. We need clarification on that urgently. I know that Ursula von der Leyen is also trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

As other Senators have mentioned, there is an urgent need for a dashboard relating to the vaccine roll-out programme. This could be tacked on to the existing Covid-19 app which, incidentally, utilises technology developed by a Waterford company. As vaccines come into the country, it is important for people to see when and where they are being distributed and how many are being administered every day. That is doable and it should be done without delay. It is important that we present those data to give the public confidence.Confidence feeds into tackling misinformation and the spread of misinformation.

Before Christmas I was horrified to come home from Dublin and find a glossy A4 leaflet, of which I have a copy here. That misinformation was not spread in the way my colleague, Senator McGahon, spoke of so eloquently, that is, on social media. This was the traditional form of the leaflet in the door and I understand it was distributed widely across Waterford city. It links Covid-19 to 5G, says nanochips will be implanted in people and that face masks are unsafe. While I dismissed these things as crazy, I am conscious that there are people who probably read this nonsense and believed it. There is an onus on us as a Government, on every politician, the media and anyone who has access to a social media platform to call out this nonsense for what it is when they see it. We all have people in our own network, maybe people we were in school with when growing up, who have bought into these conspiracy theories. We have seen how quickly they can spread right across our social media platforms and we need to up our game in targeting misinformation.

The utopian view that zero Covid is possible is misleading when one considers the back door that is Northern Ireland. We need to be very careful about what we wish for as regards mandatory quarantine for everybody coming into this country. While we might be lucky to have all our family here in Ireland, there are many hundreds of thousands in this country who have family abroad and so we need to be very careful. People will say in six months that this was not what they asked for. I ask the Minister of State to be careful in this consideration, and I know she is doing so, because we cannot just jump and say in one fell swoop that it is possible to solve everything.