Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I echo what others have said about thanking those who have been vaccinating and running the vaccination centres. I drove someone to Citywest to get a vaccination. There is definitely a lovely atmosphere there and it is well organised. We are lucky that we have low vaccine hesitancy rates and that most people one talks to are chomping at the bit to get the call to get their vaccine. That is to be welcomed because we know that the more people who are vaccinated the more we can open society and that the quicker the process is progressed the quicker we can improve our lives.

The key policy in terms of Covid-19 has moved to vaccination and recent news on delays is disappointing. At this point, any problems in the roll-out of the vaccine will have far-reaching effects into people's lives. I welcome the fact that 50% of the adult population will have its first dose by the end of May but there is concern that the 80% target for the end of June will not be met. It is repeated time and again by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste that 80% of the adult population would have received its first dose by the end of June.The Tánaiste has also made several vague statements to grab headlines but is also unfairly raising hopes of everyone being offered a vaccine by the end of that month. His statements are unhelpful, particularly to the Minister for Health in his work, especially in light of yet more problems on the supply side. There has been a drop from what was to be 470,000 single dose vaccines to half that number, or it could reach as low as 60,000 available doses, and this will significantly delay the full vaccination process. There are also reductions in expected AstraZeneca deliveries and a question over that vaccine's effectiveness against new variants. There is a real concern that problems on the supply side will delay or derail our reopening plan.

Others have mentioned the need for two jabs of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines to give a proper level of protection against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant, as is the case for the Kent or B.1.1.7 variant. We must ramp up supply and get as many people as possible vaccinated in order to protect us against the Indian variant. We have heard reports today from the British Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, SAGE, that the B.1.617.2 variant could be 50% more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 variant. That said, the Chief Medical Officer has given a positive outlook on Covid-19 in the State overall, although he has warned that we should keep an eye on those variants on local spikes of new cases, if any.

I will comment on some of what has been said over the weekend about the scenes on South William Street and other parts of the city. I worked in a café in Dublin years ago and public toilets were an issue even then. We were one of the few cafés that allowed tourists and others to come in to use public toilets. Nobody is excusing the rubbish left behind but it is not just people who are drinking who need toilets. People with disabilities or irritable bowel syndrome need somewhere to go to the toilet. We also need to provide bins as we cannot tell people they must holiday outside but not in particular areas.

This speaks to a privileged position of some, who assume everybody has a garden they can use or that people are not sharing overcrowded accommodation. People might not want to be in their parents' gardens but out somewhere else meeting their friends. We need to put in place facilities for that type of outdoor summer. We cannot close public spaces. We should instead increase their number. The scenes of hundreds of people on the street caused concern but they comprised smaller groups who had gone out to meet friends. The best time to have formulated a strategy on outdoor socialising was six weeks ago but the next best time is now. We must give people public space and facilities, including toilets, bins and everything else that goes with such activity.