I am not entirely sure what the question is. If there is a specific question, I would very much like to answer it but at this point-----

The NIAC report was published yesterday and is online now. If the Deputy goes to the national immunisation advisory committee's website, she can look at it. It issued quite a detailed report with a lot of references. It is well worth taking a look. It goes through many of the issues we have discussed here today. With regard to Erasmus students, the issue is much broader. The reality is that mandatory hotel quarantine is very serious. The epidemiological situation right across Europe is very concerning. The Deputy w…

With regard to ability to pay specifically, Irish citizens or other Irish residents who find themselves in, or having to travel through, a category 2 country within that 14-day period, will be liable to mandatory hotel quarantine. If there is real and significant issue with regard to their ability to pay, they should contact the relevant Irish embassy in the first instance.

I thank the Deputy for his questions. The walk-in PCR testing centres we recently opened have proven to be very successful. As the Deputy has quite rightly said, these centres are for people who do not show symptoms of Covid. People who do have symptoms should call their GP for a referral for testing. These centres have picked up hundreds and hundreds of cases. The feedback has been very strong. We are hearing from people who say they just went down to check but who did not, for a moment, think they were positive f…

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on matters of concern to family carers. All over the country today we have carers looking after children, parents and in-laws. There are young carers caught between commitments to their nearest and dearest and their future life choices. The carers I know describe lives that are both enriched and yet confined by their commitments. Family carers are the backbone of care provision in our country, whether caring for a child or a parent with a disability, somebody with an i…

I thank the Cathaoirleach and colleagues for the opportunity to address the House today on the Government's response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the roll-out of the national vaccination programme. The pandemic represents the greatest public health threat in the history of the State and has required an unprecedented response. Every man, woman and child on the island has sacrificed so much of their personal liberty in our collective efforts to save lives and protect our families and communities. I thank ever…

It is no problem at all. I thank the Acting Chairperson for her chairing of today's session. I thank all colleagues for the debate we had today. I try to come to the Seanad as much as possible.

The quality of the debate, challenge, questions and ideas is always very high. I thank colleagues for their very thoughtful contributions because the reality is there is no monopoly on wisdom when it comes to dealing with this pandemic. Nobody has all the answers, including this Government, me, Ireland or any country around the world. The reality is that this is completely unprecedented and is at a scale and pace that Ireland and many other countries have never seen before. The Government, the Oireachtas and parlia…

Every one of us would have taken somebody's arm off to be where we are now six or nine months ago. I hear the frustration and I have the same frustration - we all do. Our vaccinators, doctors, nurses, medical students, the National Ambulance Service and everyone who is involved in this share the same frustration. So many people are doing such an important job. They all feel it. We all feel it. We want the vaccines and we want them now because they will stop the torture that has been the past year for so many people…

Let us talk about the Beacon Hospital for a moment. What happened there was completely unacceptable. There is no excuse whatsoever for what happened. It was clearly against the agreed protocols and the entire ethos of our vaccination programme, which is to vaccinate the most vulnerable first. We do that because we want to minimise the damage this virus can do to our country. By vaccinating the most vulnerable first, as well as our healthcare workers who take care of those who get sick, we minimise the risk, maximis…

What happened is unacceptable. It sent out the wrong signal. For everybody, this stank of privilege. That is what it looked like to everybody. It should not have happened. I have suspended vaccine operations at the Beacon Hospital. I did so following consultation with the HSE. Some people asked why it did not happen immediately. I wanted to make sure there was capacity to put in place alternative vaccination arrangements at very short notice. We did not want a situation whereby we acted instantly and later found th…

The question now, and what the Cabinet committee on Covid-19 will discuss later today, is how we protect the hard-earned progress and having one of the lowest rates. We are surrounded by countries that are seeing a huge surge in cases because they now are experiencing the B117 variant, as we did in December, and they are struggling. From a health perspective, for me, the Department of Health, the HSE and my colleagues in government, the focus is on three particular areas, the first of which is targeted suppression …

Yes, the Senator did. I would prefer to get the Senator a written response because he asked a very reasonable and very important question about what is legal and what is advisory. I want to ensure he gets a precise answer to that question. I will ensure that the Department reverts to him with exactly that. I acknowledge that for many people not being able to attend mass in person - obviously, they can still do it online - is very tough for them. The only reason such restrictions are in place is to keep people alive…

I am sharing time with the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. I welcome the opportunity to discuss with colleagues in Dáil Éireann this morning the progress of the vaccine programme. Covid-19 has presented Ireland and countries around the world with our biggest public health challenge in living memory. In recent months, more transmissible variants have driven up infections, and governments right across Europe are extending restrictions. As we are all aware, daily numbers of new cases in Ireland remain stubbornly h…

I acknowledge the Deputy's comments on this being the start of a period of hope. We all obviously have a job to do here. However, I think we would speak as one in looking to the coming quarter as one of hope as vaccines roll out, cases are reduced and as we can begin to have the conversation we all want to have about returning to normality. In terms of test and trace, travel and vaccines, we will obviously just have to disagree or agree to disagree. The testing and tracing programme is very comprehensive. We have o…

If everything comes in within the next five days as contracted, the shortfall would be fewer than 100,000 doses. Obviously, we want everything that has been committed to, as we have discussed on several occasions. AstraZeneca has not to date lived up on that. The shortfall will involve, rather than 1.2 million doses, 1.1 million doses or thereabouts. It is meaningful and it does matter. We are engaged closely and we fully expect to AstraZeneca to make good on its full deliveries.

We want all of the deliveries from AstraZeneca as were originally committed. As we are all aware, there are very intensive discussions going on at an EU level with the European Council and the Commission. As of right now, AstraZeneca has not committed to the European Commission that it will fulfil its original obligations. Obviously, we are not happy with this and the Commission is not happy with it. We are continuing to push hard for as much vaccine supply as possible because that is what the Irish people deserve.

To clarify, we will receive 1 million doses per month. Over the second quarter it would be approximately 3 million doses rather than 1 million, which is very positive. The answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes" and it is exactly the question I have been putting to the HSE repeatedly. We are expecting a very high volume of vaccines to come in in the next number of days. We are not looking at an incremental increase in April; we are looking at a step-change in the number of people being vaccinated. As recently as y…

Are we out of time?

I can revert to the Deputy on the other matters he raised.