How many times has the Government and the task force, individually, met or spoken to all four companies? This is critical information, of which, respectfully, I think the Minister should be aware. I have two more questions, which I will ask together. Last week, I asked the Minister if he would consider doing the following for one week. This is about transparency. Transparency is the Minister's friend. Can we get, on a weekly basis, in tabular form and in respect of each of the four companies, the projected or expec…

Will the Minister answer my other questions?

I want to ask about vaccines and I preface my comments by saying I am very much pro-EU. I am a former MEP and I know that Ireland is part of the EU bloc. It was very important for us in regard to purchasing power for vaccines. However, yesterday I appeared on RTÉ's "Drivetime" programme with Cormac Ó hEadhra, along with the EU health spokesperson, Stefan De Keersmaecker. To say Mr. De Keersmaecker's commentary and answers to questions was underwhelming would be an understatement. I asked the following fairly direct…

I thank the Tánaiste for his frankness but I want to know what we are going to do here. Everyone knows that AstraZeneca is letting down the EU. I was shocked by the response I got yesterday. It is simply not good enough. What are we going to do? We are a small country but we have a big capacity. This needs to be dealt with at a European level. It cannot be a situation where this company is honouring its contracts to Britain and the US, with exports going from Europe to Britain and the US, and our contracts are bein…

I regret to say that the Tánaiste's follow-up answer to my question during Leader's Questions was not satisfactory. It has prompted me to ask the following questions. I listened to the Minister for Health answering questions earlier on the vaccine roll-out. Have the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste or any other member of the Government spoken with AstraZeneca? Could the Tánaiste confirm that somebody in the Government has spoken to AstraZeneca? At some stage, has somebody in the Government spoken to the three current suppli…

Regarding vaccine supply, could we get a yes-no answer to the following question? Did the Government try to get some of the unused Pfizer vaccines, as Germany and Denmark have done? If so, why were we not successful? In addition, considering we are a world leader in pharmaceuticals, can the Taoiseach tell the Chamber why the Government's discussions with Merck and Pfizer have not been successful to date, given their presence in Ireland and their production of vaccines here for our people who desperately need them?

I thank the Taoiseach for that. It is somewhat shocking that he had a call with the UK Prime Minister on 2 March regarding the World Cup bid, which we support, and that the Prime Minister did not raise with him in any way, shape or form the proposed plan to breach the terms of the protocol. Did the Taoiseach have any indication? How did it make him feel that the Prime Minister subsequently behaved in this way? Had the Taoiseach any inkling from the conversation that this was going to happen? It seems pretty shockin…

We are short of time but it is fair to say the European Commission has not covered itself in glory with the vaccine roll-out. I note from his earlier reply that President von der Leyen texted the Taoiseach on the new amount of vaccines coming to Ireland, which is pretty small considering the losses we have had in recent weeks and the shortfall in the vaccines that were meant to be delivered originally. The Taoiseach did not get time to finish his reply about discussions with Pfizer and Merck. I want to clarify some…

I want to ask the Tánaiste today about the volume of job losses recently. It is destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. I am concerned that some of the losses are coming under the cover of Covid. I am not alone in that regard. All of the changes in banking will rip the heart out of so many rural and urban towns across the State. Ulster Bank's announcement affects 2,800 staff, Bank of Ireland is closing 88 branches affecting 1,400 staff and on top of that, the Kerry Group announcement of the l…

I thank the Tánaiste. Regarding the PUP and redundancy, speed is of the essence. It is affecting people's lives in terms of decision making. I would appreciate a quicker timeline. This issue has been raised continuously with me by ICTU. It cannot affect people's redundancy so we need to work out a formula for dealing with it. I noted in his reply that the Tánaiste did not answer the question on the plan with regard to young people. I have a serious concern that we need to be planning now for young people because th…

I am sure we all agree that last night's "RTÉ Investigates" programme on the impact of illegal adoptions was really shocking. The requirement for legislation on adoptive information and tracing is being brought forward by Senator Bacik in the Seanad tomorrow, a person who the Tánaiste acknowledged previously as a very good legislator. What are we going to do to ensure that those who were illegally adopted have legal certainty? My former colleague, Joan Burton, published draft legislation in 2019, with Ms Anne O'Mea…

I am very interested in the process by which the three companies which are providing vaccines - we hope there will be more – are providing information on the numbers of vaccines they are giving us as a country. We have heard the Tánaiste saying 300,000 people a week will be vaccinated in April. I pray and hope there will be even more. Have we as a country and the Minister been told in writing by each of the three companies - Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca - how many vaccines they are going to provide us with for e…

That is fair enough. I have a question on this. Obviously this is sent to the Minister in writing every week. Is it possible for the Minister to publish it every week? That would help us to help the Minister. He has a schedule for the next three months. Will he publish that schedule each week so that we can have transparency? Transparency is a big issue. If the Minister published it we could transparently see how many vaccines are coming in from each provider and how much is projected to come in for each month. The…

I understand where the Minister is coming from but I respectfully suggest it would actually do the opposite. We would all see it transparently. We could not be called hypocrites in this House because we would know we were receiving vaccines and we would know that everyone projected honestly based on the timelines they had at the moment those projections were stated publicly. Once that changed we could see it. I would say the Minister should not do it daily but once a week, every Monday, every Friday or whatever. I …

I raise the issue of the fine of €4.1 million imposed by the Central Bank of Ireland on Davy stockbrokers. While it is welcome because of the reprehensible behaviour of the executives involved, there is also a real issue of perception versus reality. I am sure the Taoiseach agrees. I refer to there being one law for the rich and one for the poor. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, commented on this issue this morning. I did not think he was very good. I thought he was quite weak. Why have we been waiting for…

The Central Bank has made the recommendation.

The Central Bank has asked us to think in this regard. It is not-----

I will ask the Minister about the revised reprioritisation of the vaccine roll-out through the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC. Broadly speaking, I welcome the decision, but issues arise and I want to flag them so they are nipped in the bud. In response, I want the Minister to guarantee that this will happen. Dr. Keith Swanick in Mayo has outlined how he and a neighbouring GP received no vaccines but another neighbouring GP received 420 vaccines, despite having only 45 to 50 patients aged over 85. Th…

Will the Minister please engage and ensure the Government irons out these issues?

We cannot have such anomalies happening. It is not equitable.