Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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937. To ask the Minister for Health the efforts being made to purchase vaccinations beyond what is being provided through EU; and if the Government is working to aid developing countries in their vaccination efforts. [16641/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland is participating in a Procurement Exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of Member States to procure suitable, safe and effective vaccines, in sufficient quantities, to combat COVID-19. Six APAs have been negotiated by the Commission under this process to date, of which Ireland is participating in five.

Government approval has been obtained to opt-into a sixth, but this is conditional on certain trial progression criteria being met.

Ireland has opted-in to pro rata allocation of BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines. Ireland has also secured additional doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine via options and top up contracts, which will bring the current total of BioNTech/Pfizer doses secured to approximately 6.5 million doses. Ireland has also ordered 1.64 million additional doses of the Moderna vaccine. Ireland now expects to receive a total of 1.1 million doses of three of the four approved vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca) from the start of the vaccination programme to the end of March.

Ireland has signalled its solidarity with the EU approach and has, through its participation, gained access to a broad range of vaccines that it might not otherwise have access to, and at the cost agreed collectively by the EU.

Four vaccines have been authorised by the EU, and a number of vaccine candidates are still to be fully assessed. Ireland fully supports efforts by the international community, including as an EU Member State, to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for all. If, and when, it is determined that Ireland has an excess of vaccine doses to successfully achieve the goals of the vaccination strategy, Ireland will utilise the sharing mechanisms available through the EU procurement structure. It is expected that COVAX will be central to this sharing mechanism. As significant uncertainty remains around the vaccination environment in Europe, it is too early to quantify or schedule the potential sharing of vaccines.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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938. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 818 of 3 February 2021, the estimated population size as per departmental and NIAC documentation of each of the provisional vaccine allocation groups (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16642/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland’s COVID-19 vaccination programme strategy is to distribute all available vaccine as quickly as is operationally possible, prioritising those who are most vulnerable to COVID-19.

The programme is based on the principles of safety, effectiveness and fairness, with the objective of reducing severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 infection.

To date over 800,000 vaccine doses have been administered. Vaccination of cohort 1 and 2 are now substantially complete. Further information on vaccines administered to cohort groups is available on the HSE Integrated Information Service - vaccination programme dashboard at:

Vaccination of the over 70s in cohort 3 and those aged 16-69 and at very high risk of severe illness and death in cohort 4 is ongoing. Work is continuing on the stratification of subsequent groups and assessing the number of people encompassed by each group.