Taoiseach accepts 'systems issues' in Covid-19 booster programme after lengthy queues at clinics

Taoiseach Micheál Martin queues for his Covid 19 vaccination booster jab at Cork City Hall vaccination centre. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

The Taoiseach accepts there have been some "systems issues" in the Covid-19 booster vaccine programme which has seen people turned away from some vaccination centres but he insists that the HSE is doing “everything possible” to administer the jab to as many people as it can.

Micheál Martin was speaking in Cork on Friday evening after he joined the queue at the City Hall vaccination centre to attend his appointment for his booster jab.

A walk-in clinic for booster vaccinations for 50 to 69-year-olds and for healthcare workers over 30 will run at the centre this Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 4pm.

Speaking after waiting the required 15-minutes post-vaccination, Mr Martin praised staff at the centre for their work, and the HSE for its work nationally on the booster programme.

But there were complaints at this centre last week when a surge in walk-ins clashed with appointments, forcing many people who were waiting outside to leave without getting their jab.

There were more complaints in Dublin during the week when hundreds of people were turned away from the UCD and Croke Park vaccination centres again following a surge in walk-ins.

Mr Martin accepted there had been problems this week but he insisted that overall, the booster programme was working well, with 40,000 vaccinated on Thursday alone.

“The HSE has opened up a range of channels this time and it has also opened up the age cohorts in parallel, rather than in sequence,” he said.

“It would have been far easier for them just to do their vaccination centres by appointments and you wouldn’t have the situations that occurred in a small number of vaccination centres. 

The vast majority of vaccination centres went off well and it was their best day yet – 40,000 people on Thursday were vaccinated across the country, so there are pluses and minuses in the approach being adopted.

“What we were all endeavouring to do this week was to get across the sense of urgency attached to getting the booster."

He continued, “Obviously [the HSE] accept that there are some issues around systems and that but fundamentally the entire effort has been about getting as many people boosted as we possibly can as quickly as we can.”

He said the HSE estimates that about 1,500 people were vaccinated at the Cork city vaccination centre on Friday and that the approach being adopted was maximising numbers.

Micheál Martin getting his booster jab from vaccinator Brian Dowling. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

"I think that is very important in the context of the threat of Omicron. We do know, notwithstanding the fact that it seems to be more infectious, that the booster does give added protection," Mr Martin said.

"There is a constant focus now on Omicron across Europe. 

"I had a pre-European Council meeting with a number of European leaders this morning. It will be on the agenda next week at the European Council, assessing the prevalence and the coordinated measures that we might be able to take in relation to it."

And he again said that while the latest restrictions are in place until January 9, further restrictions can not be ruled out.

He said people have taken on board the warnings, and that has led to a stabilisation in the hospitalisations and in the numbers in intensive care which he said will give the health service "significant headroom" over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the HSE has announced that walk-in boosters for those eligible and aged over 50 will be available this weekend at the Bantry vaccination centre in West Cork.

The walk-in clinics will run on Saturday from 1pm to 4.30pm and on Sunday from 9am to 4.30pm.

The clinics will offer Moderna vaccines. Anyone attending must be aged 50 or over, and it must be five months or more since your last vaccine dose.