This is a great honour. This is my first time speaking in Seanad Éireann.

The real Seanad. I am absolutely thrilled to be here and thank the Cathaoirleach for inviting me today. For colleagues in the Seanad, I apologise ahead of time for having to leave at some point to go over to the convention centre. Obviously there are various things going on there but I wanted to make sure that I came in here, gave the opening statement and stayed as long as I could but at some point I must go, which I am sure colleagues understand. As Senators will be aware, last month the Government took the very …

I acknowledge the Deputy's and his party's support in encouraging people to take up the vaccination programme. The expanded flu vaccination campaign is a substantial advance on the campaigns of previous years. Some 1.95 million doses of vaccine, about twice as much as was administered last year, have been made available for those in at-risk groups and children aged from two to 12 years old. The total amount includes 600,000 doses of the vaccine delivered via nasal drops to children aged from two to 12 years old. Th…

The orders for the flu vaccination are made at the start of the year. I believe the orders for this winter were made in January or February. The HSE took a new approach. It identified the at-risk groups, and it was calculated that totalled 1.35 million people. Children aged from two to 12 years were added to that and the 600,000 doses were procured. I believe, and the figures confirm, that there is very high demand, which is positive. It appears that almost all 1.95 million doses will be administered. As to whether…

Ireland is currently involved in the EU procurement exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of member states to procure a portfolio of stable, safe and effective vaccines in sufficient quantities to combat Covid-19. I am sure the Deputy has seen that we are involved with the WHO and the Gavi global response, which is in a spirit with which the Deputy would agree. It has a global justice view to make sure that the vaccine is distributed globally. The arrangements are intended to ensure co-ordina…

As Deputy Kelly is aware, it was originally intended that the CervicalCheck tribunal would be established at the end of March. Both Deputy Kelly and I voted for the Act to set that up, and we debated some of the various parts of it in this House. The establishment was delayed due to Covid and then a further delay arose, as Deputy Kelly is aware, due to issues concerning membership when two of the judges were called on to do other jobs. The 221+ group has consistently raised its concerns over the delay in establishi…

I accept Deputy Kelly's bona fides on this. He and I have worked on this together on the committee and in this House. I hope he appreciates that I cannot get into a negotiation here with him that I am having in private with this group.

It has been my intention from the very start to do right by this group. The group wrote to me and asked that the tribunal would be set up immediately, and that is what we moved to do. The group reiterated that in September. Deputy Kelly said that a few small issues may have been resolved but I am afraid that is factually incorrect.

The single biggest issue is the Supreme Court ruling in the Ruth Morrissey case, and they said themselves that that was a game changer. The group asked for an undertaking that the labs would not be joined as co-defendants in the tribunal. That has been supplied not just by me but in a letter furnished by the chief executive of the State Claims Agency.

So, with the greatest of respect, that has been done.

We can all make comments about people adopting attitudes with each other. With the greatest respect, what I say to Deputy Kelly is that I, the Department and the Government are in detailed discussions with the 221+ group. Various issues have been raised. A lot of them have been dealt with comprehensively.

Good progress has been made on the others. I cannot get into a negotiation with Deputy Kelly in the Chamber about this. I need to respect the process that we are going through with the 221+ group. I have received the letter today, and I read it.

I am sorry, but with the greatest respect, it is being looked at. It is a seven-page, detailed legalistic letter. It raises a lot of very detailed issues and we are going to afford it the respect it deserves. We are seeking legal advice on it. We are going to discuss it and we are going to see what progress we can make. The only thing we are bound by is the law.

My position going into this is exactly my position today. The only thing we want to do is what is right by these women. Deputy Kelly and I voted in this House for the Act that sets this tribunal up.

What I want to do and what I believe Deputy Kelly wants to do is get this tribunal set up. We have made progress right across the board, within the bounds of the law, which we obviously have to follow.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Deputy. The answer may be a bit long but I will supply the Deputy with the full text if we do not get through it. On the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, the HSE developed the capacity to conduct 100,000 tests per week. I subsequently met the HSE and requested that it look at increasing the capacity. This is now in place and the HSE currently has standing capacity to test 120,000 people every week and progress is being made on looking at going higher than t…

We discussed this in the Chamber before. I do not accept the system collapsed. I absolutely accept that what happened should not have happened. Many people were asked to contact their own close contacts. That is not what we want. I would not see that as the system collapsing, however. In some European countries where cases rose, one essentially saw contact tracing stopping. We did not see it stop, however. It was a one-off event. It now has the capacity to rapidly contact trace up to 1,500 new cases per day. In the…

We will just have to agree to disagree on the system collapsing. As I said, obviously one does not want people having to contact their own close contacts. As a one-off event in nine months or so of a global pandemic, I certainly do not believe that constitutes a collapse at all. I cannot speak to people saying an additional 800. I am pretty sure what I have been saying is that it is scaling up to 800. It will have gone from 231 in mid-September to 800, a significant increase. What is important now is that the capac…

I do. There are many different things going on. The first of two of the big ones, of which the Deputy will be aware, is moving the public health doctors to consultant status, which is important. The Department is currently in preliminary talks with the IMO about how that might work. I am meeting with public health doctors this Friday. The second is an expansion of the workforce. I have sanctioned a doubling of the workforce. We are working through exactly how that might be deployed. There are public health doctors,…

I thank the Deputy. I share her views. The 72 doctors she has mentioned include 15 public health specialists and 17 directors of public health, who obviously have wider remits. The public health doctors we have on the ground are even more stretched.