I am sharing time with Deputy Quinlivan. The Minister stated that he is looking for help from all Members of this House. He has got that help. We have come in here, week in and week out, offering solutions and putting forward ideas. We have asked people time and again to abide by the public health advice. We have discouraged unsafe activity and will do so again. People need help from the Minister and they need him and the Government to get it right. I have said repeatedly that when it comes to issues like test and …

I will take the Minister up on that offer, but I ask him to stick to answering the questions. I have limited time and the clock is ticking. People want answers to the questions I am putting. The question I put was how many doses of the vaccines are due to arrive in the month of April. It is a straight question and I am looking for a simple answer to it. I will take the Minister up on the offer of meeting him with my party leader to discuss the test and trace system.

My question is for the month of April. This is the third time I have asked. For the month of April, what is the anticipated delivery?

Unfortunately, we all get a front row seat at the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Party Parliamentary meetings. That is the nature of those parties' meetings. It was reported that the Minister and Taoiseach stated the figure would be 860,000. The Minister is now saying it will be 1 million. This is what confuses people. He then says the figures cannot be 100% accurate. People need to know exactly what the figure is or at least what the estimated figure is. If it changes, it changes and if it is down to pharmaceutical com…

With respect, it is not about jumping up and down. We accept that they are estimated figures and if they change, they change. However, when they are changing overnight and different figures are being given at different meetings in different settings for different reasons, it does not inspire confidence. There is another question I want to put to the Minister now and he can answer it quickly. Was the Cabinet briefed in advance of the national immunisation advisory committee coming out with its changes in prioritisat…

The Minister might answer that first.

I gave the Minister plenty of time.

The Minister is taking us for fools here.

I am sharing time with Deputy Ó Laoghaire. I commend the whistleblower, Shane Corr, on coming forward and "RTÉ Investigates" on airing the programme, bringing very distressing information into the public domain and making us aware of a practice that has scandalised and horrified the family members of children with autism and special needs. When I watched the programme last week, I was not surprised but I was sickened. I was not surprised because the engagement between this State and the parents of children with spe…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that: — for too long family carers have been taken for granted and denied the supports that they and their loved ones need; — family carers have been wrongly forced by Government after Government to fight for their children’s basic rights to education and vital therapeutic supports, and as the abhorrent practices uncovered by RTÉ Investigates demonstrated, the State does not fight fair; — the failure of the Government to prioritise family carers in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout progr…

Covid has shone a spotlight on many sections of society and the vulnerabilities of some of them. Family carers are one of them. This has to be the start of finally delivering a new beginning for carers. I do not have confidence in this Government or any of the main conservative parties in this State to deliver that new beginning. They have been in government for decades. All the carers I have talked to are sick and tired of false promises and of hearing from the same politicians from the same parties, who tell them…

We are entering into a critical phase in the fight against Covid. This is the phase in which we can fight back and win. It is the phase in which we can give people hope that, over the next number of months if we start to get things right, we can see the easing of restrictions as we move into the third quarter. For that to happen, however, the State has to get its part right. The contract we made with people was that they would abide by tough restrictions. They have been doing so for some time. The State then would …

The 1.1 million doses are short of what we were expecting. Obviously that is down to the shortfall in the AstraZeneca vaccines. Will the Minister give us a guarantee that the shortfall, which comes to several hundred thousand doses and is quite significant, will be made up in the second quarter?

The projection we were given some months ago was 1.4 million doses. It was reduced to 1.2 million and then to 1.1 million. That is a bit more than a 100,000 shortfall. Will the vaccine doses that were previously committed to and were part of the advance purchase agreements and which did not arrive in the first quarter of this year be made up in the second quarter or will there be a continued shortfall as we move into the second quarter?

The bottom line is that it is down to the relationship between the European Commission and AstraZeneca but that shortfall will not be made up. That is what I am hearing. We are not going to get the vaccines that were committed to by AstraZeneca, which is deeply frustrating and deeply disappointing. People want to know that the Minister can get what is under his remit right. I have two questions about that remit. The Minister spoke earlier about testing and tracing and said we can agree to disagree. I have never bel…

My colleague is coming in now.

There is a real frustration out there with the roll-out of the vaccine. The Minister has accepted and acknowledged some of that frustration. That frustration is understandable. Nobody in this Chamber can say that the roll-out so far has been as efficient as we would have wanted it to be. It is falling short of people's reasonable expectations. We have had real problems on the supply side and the head of the HSE said that it is the responsibility of the Department of Health and the Minister for Health to sort out pr…

As the Minister for Health, has he been in direct contact with AstraZeneca? Has he spoken to the company? What response did he receive? These are agreements reached through the European Commission with this company. People want to know if the Minister is being hands-on. Has he spoken directly to the company? Has he spoken directly to the European Commission to express the frustration of people that this simply is not good enough?

With respect, I asked if the Minister for Health has contacted AstraZeneca directly. He has acknowledged that there is frustration. He has acknowledged the missed targets. In his view it is the responsibility of AstraZeneca. I accept that the agreement is through the European Commission, but the Minister for Health has responsibility for the supply side. I am asking him a straight question. Has he directly contacted AstraZeneca at a senior level to express the frustration of people in this State who are being left …

I ask the Minister about family carers. He knows I feel very strongly about this. I have met hundreds of them and will meet hundreds more today because they are really concerned that they are being left behind. They are really concerned that they are not being valued and respected. They have said time and again they are not looking to take vaccines from anybody else. They are supporting and looking after very vulnerable children with complex needs in many instances. In the past the Minister has said that he has eng…