Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Senator certainly brings a colourful approach to the debate and I thank him. There is no script that could be prepared for me that would have the answers for that. I will take on board much of what he has said and I will respond. I can only talk from a health perspective at all times because that is where I sit. I am a Minister of State within the Department of Health. For me to talk about education would be misusing my time and misinforming people.

The amendment relates to openness and transparency and the lessons that have been learned and what we have taken on board. To be fair to the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, he told Deputy Cullinane that he had information on 2020 that he had no problem sharing. I was there for that part of the debate. It would be wonderful to share that information. Much has happened even in recent weeks in where we are with the debate, the roll out and with NIAC's further approval of vaccinating young people. The conversation has really moved on and to the point where Senator Buttimer joined us. I do wonder about what happened with the role of Professor MacCraith. There was something working wonderfully then as any of us who travelled around and saw our vaccination centres observed. The Senator spoke of Cork. I talk about Galway. There was a pop-up centre in Connemara because there was a problem crossing the bridge. Galway is the second largest county in the country and we needed to ensure that everyone could get access to vaccination centres. The pop-up centre in Connemara proved incredibly successful. That needs to be reinstated this minute so that people have the same access. If one wants to accelerate something one needs to see what worked really well the last time. What worked well the last time was the role played by the Army in logistics. They are the people who can roll anything out. They were the spine. We had vaccinators, people coming forward and the medicine, but the role played by the Army made the process work very well. We need to see how the Army's involvement can be accelerated.

The Senator mentioned community. The role of GPs is important. Senator Clifford-Lee mentioned GPs. Our GPs have always had broad shoulders in the vaccine roll-out and the boosters. However, it is getting complicated. We have new people coming forward to get vaccinated and that is very welcome but there are boosters on top of that. In addition, there is the younger cohort. We have to see how it can be best done. To give my tuppence worth, I disagree with the Senator on closing the schools but perhaps I would use the time differently. This might be where I would look to my community health organisations and send them into the schools and use the time appropriately rather than having parents having to take time off or overburdening vaccination centres and clogging up car parks. We could bring the people to the schools and deal with those of younger years and who are medically compromised, that is special schools and special classes and units. We could start there and go right into the schools. When one goes into one school one may as well finish the job rather than leave a cohort unvaccinated. That would be my thinking if I was in charge of logistics. They are there. They are supported by their teachers who they know well. If family want to be there in support they can. They can sit at their desk for the 15 minutes afterwards so we do not have to use the space in GP surgeries or vaccination centres.

We need to have an agile approach. The HSE is fantastic for doing the job but we need to expand things to allow others to assist the roll-out. Community health organisations would know exactly how to do it. My view is that we could use the two and half days next week to get the vaccines into the young people in the schools so they were protected and when they meet granny and grandad they have protection around them because we know that they are going to meet. We may as well protect everyone. NIAC has given approval. Perhaps we should see how we can use the resources a little differently. The Senator is right. There is no silver bullet. It is a case of talking and communicating about what measures can work. Some CHOs will respond differently to others. Were all staff to down tools for ten days for the greater good to ensure a successful vaccination roll-out, that might be a way to go. I have gone on a little but that is all because of Senator Buttimer.