I have given the Minister a good run to respond.

In fairness, we have a very short time, as the Minister knows. Are family carers being considered for cohort 6? I ask the Minister to give a "Yes" or "No" answer to that.

A colleague of the Minister's, a Fianna Fáil Deputy, responded to a family carer saying that she had a meeting with him and he had informed her, subject to a recommendation coming from the NIAC, that family carers would be in category 6 and that carers should not be as concerned as that particular carer was because there would be movement. Either that is right or it is wrong. We need to be honest with carers about what is being considered. I also have a question about pharmacists. They are very frustrated about the…

Regarding category 6, a Fianna Fáil Deputy-----

That is unacceptable. I asked about-----

We are on the cusp of something really big and exciting for the south east. I have been involved in politics for 20 years. For all those years and more, there have been campaigns for a university for Waterford and the south-east region. In less than a year this can be a reality and can happen. On 1 January next year, we could have a technological university for the south east, operating in the interests of every county and every person living in the south east. If this university is put in place, it will benefit yo…

It has been reported today that 300 extra training places for doctors that were funded and put in place in the earlier part of the pandemic look set now to be cancelled. Those places were launched by the Tánaiste, when he was Taoiseach, in April last year. Having 300 fewer doctors working in the Irish healthcare system at a time when we have a huge crisis is not what should be happening. The Irish Medical Organisation has written to the HSE asking for the funding to be restored and for those places to go ahead. Wil…

I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Ward. We are at a very important point in the battle against Covid. In fact, I would argue we are at a critical point in relation to suppressing this virus. We have had debates in this Chamber on a range of different ingredients to keep driving down community transmission and then keeping the numbers low. That includes having a first-class test and trace system. It obviously includes sufficient checks and controls at ports and airports. As the Minister and the Minister of…

I come to the reporting - the daily reporting and the transparency. Why, even at this point, we do not have, even on a weekly basis, information on how many vaccines have arrived, how many vaccines have been administered and how many are in storage? Such information would give people confidence and it would ensure that we have full transparency. There is some reporting but it does not go far enough. Would the Minister commit to reviewing that issue and enhancing the reporting to ensure we can say to people that the…

There are a lot of questions I want to get through, and I thank the Minister for his brevity in responding. Some GPs have claimed in recent weeks they did not get their vaccines in time, and many of us have been contacted by relatives of older people who were in GP surgeries expecting to get their vaccine and it did not happen. Does the Minister have numbers on reported cases where GPs were due to get their vaccines on a certain day and it did not happen? I am sure that would be valuable information for the Ministe…

I will put my remaining questions in one block. Will the Minister outline to the House the new target dates for all the over-85s and all the over-70s to be vaccinated? We are now hearing some other countries in Europe may use the AstraZeneca vaccine. We hear Britain is now examining the possibility of a third jab of the vaccine in the autumn. Is that something that is being considered in this State? Regarding people who are housebound, and while I, as somebody who first raised this issue, welcome the move starting …

There are reports from many GP surgeries across the State that they have not received the vaccines they were due to receive in recent days. Today in Ballyfermot, a 91-year-old woman was in a GP surgery waiting for her vaccine but had to be told to go home. That is happening far too often. Numerous other such cases were raised with the Minister today. Can he find out what is happening and can this be stopped? If it is communicated to GPs that they will receive vaccines on a given day and if older people are lining u…

I support the Labour Party amendment, as well as amendment No. 31, which is in the name of two Sinn Féin Deputies. A number of these amendments are grouped. We had lengthy discussions on Second Stage, in which we set out our overall view of the Bill and the Government's failure in this area. At the heart of that failure is the matter being addressed by the amendments tabled by various Opposition groupings. The reason there is unity among the Opposition on this is that it makes sense. It is simply common sense that …

That is because there is a travel ban.

There is a travel ban, Minister.

This Bill has been a long time coming. It is nine months since NPHET recommended that discretionary elements of travel should end. It is disappointing the solutions in respect of checks and controls at airports are still not in place today when we are debating a Bill which still does not solve the problem. It is still a case of half measures. The Bill will not deal with the real threat of the importation of the virus from outside this State. It is important for me to point out that we are having this debate at a ti…

This is a disgraceful abuse of the House.

For the record, when Deputy Bruton was a Minister, he answered all of our questions.

I wish to raise the issue of a university for the south east. A number of meetings are taking place with Oireachtas Members from Waterford, the local chamber of commerce and a campaign group in Waterford. I raised this issue with the Tánaiste last week and I will repeat what I said then. It is important that this project be delivered, and I want it to be delivered as quickly as possible, but it has to be consistent with national policy and the national planning framework. Under national policy, Waterford city has t…

I commend Deputy Doherty on the work he has done in this area over a long period of time. These are not new issues. The issue of dual pricing and price gouging has been with us for a long time. These are very unfair and, in fact, toxic practices that have been carried out by greedy insurance companies for a long time. Deputy Doherty and others have shone a spotlight on this issue for months and years but the reality is that the Minister of State's Government has done nothing. Customers are being ripped off every si…