Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope everybody has a wonderful St. Patrick's Day. I will again address the question of the Covid-19 pandemic and the State's vaccination programme, which is, to be frank, progressing at a snail's pace. Yesterday the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, admitted he was to miss the modest target of 1.25 million doses to be administered by the end of March, yet another abject failure.We also learned that the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues have no plan to source vaccines outside the European procurement system so we have to wait and wait while people suffer. What kind of a plan is that? Is that what this Government regards as leadership? That is unacceptable. The people deserve better than that. Meanwhile, this Government is giving massive pay hikes to senior officials, including the €81,000 pay hike to the Secretary General of the Department of Health. That is a 40% pay increase. What has the Government promised the nurses? A mere 1%. The CEO of the HSE is paid €363,000 while student nurses who have been on the front line receive nothing. Is that fair? The Director General of the World Health Organization is paid €100,000 less than our head of the Department of Health. The Government tells us this is the right decision and it has to pay this amount to get the right applicants for the Department. Are we getting the right results to justify this expenditure? As things stand, we have inoculated fewer people than there are in Cork alone. We have administered one tenth of the number of vaccines they have in Israel and less than a third of the number in Northern Ireland. It is unacceptable. They say Nero fiddled while Rome burned. While this Government fiddles, lives and livelihoods are being destroyed and the nation is trapped in a lockdown that is seemingly without end.