Ireland to receive nearly 100,000 more vaccines from AstraZeneca

As part of an agreement between AstraZeneca and the EU, it is expected that Ireland will receive an additional 99,000 doses. This increase would see the country receive 400,000 of the 600,000 doses initially promised.

Ireland is set to receive nearly 100,000 more vaccines from Oxford AstraZeneca following a new agreement between the manufacturer and the European Union. 

Embattled EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has announced AstraZeneca will deliver nine million additional doses by the end of March.

Following a weekend of rancour after her office sought to trigger a move to block vaccines being delivered into the North, only to be withdrawn, Ms von der Leyen said on social media that this additional commitment will see 40m doses in total compared to last week’s offer from the company, which sparked a furious row between the commission and AstraZeneca.

She also said that AstraZeneca will start deliveries one week earlier than scheduled and will also expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.

Agreement

In a tweet, Ms von der Leyen wrote that the commission had reached an agreement on delivery of a further nine million doses before the end of the first quarter of this year.

As part of this agreement, it is expected that Ireland will receive an additional 99,000 doses. This increase would see the country receive 400,000 of the 600,000 doses initially promised.

Ireland’s EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness said Ms von der Leyen should not consider her position over the “rushed” decision to try and block the flow of vaccines into the North.

Ms McGuinness said on Sunday she was not informed of the move to trigger Article 16 of the Brexit protocol by Ms von der Leyen’s office, despite her position.

Ms McGuinness said the EU's intention to trigger Article 16 was a “mistake”, adding there has been fallout.

"I put my hands up on behalf of the commission, this has not been good for the European Commission," she said.

“We've seen very justified anger and the political fallout. It is absolutely true to say that the normal and proper scrutiny didn't happen,” she said.

“What was intended to be a very technical regulation to get information transparency on the flows of vaccines turned out to contain this very sensitive clause about Ireland, it wasn't brought to my attention.”

She said the normal and proper scrutiny of such a decision did not happen in this instance.

“When I think of the last four years since Brexit and the efforts at every level in the commission to accommodate the consequences of Brexit around the island of Ireland and Northern Ireland and to negotiate the protocol as the Taoiseach has said over such a long period of time, this mistake doesn't do service to all of that, but we will learn lessons from that,” she said.

Ms McGuinness said this is a mistake with very serious consequences. “So there is no getting away from that and we will have to look, this week, to make sure it doesn't happen again,” she told RTÉ radio.

Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin slapped down Downing Street suggestions that he only learned of the mistake when he spoke to prime minister Boris Johnson.

“No, I don't know where you got that from but that certainly was not the case,” he told the BBC. 

“We found out through the public announcement by the European Union Commission. When I heard of this, I immediately decided to ring the president Ursula von der Leyen. I outlined my concerns about what I believe to be the very serious implications for the operation of the protocol as a result of this decision. To be fair to the president, she responded really quickly.”

Mr Martin rejected assertions by the North’s first minister Arlene Foster that the attempted move by the EU on Friday was a “hostile act” against the North.