Government promises 'more detail' on vaccine rollout plans
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan told the Dáil on Thursday that due to clarity around vaccine supply, more information should be forthcoming. Picture Dan Linehan
The Government will be able to set out the vaccine rollout plan in more detail in the coming weeks, according to Eamon Ryan.
The Minister for Transport told the Dáil on Thursday that due to clarity around vaccine supply, more information should be forthcoming.
"It is expected there will be set out in more detail exactly what that roadmap is," he said.
Mr Ryan said that wasn't certain last week "as we saw the AstraZenca numbers change radically and the entire plan had to change again because of that, but I believe there is for the next coming weeks some increasing certainty around it".
"Given that, I think it will be possible for us to make public all those detailed plans that are there, the entire system is working on that and there's no shortage of resources, or any other capability.
The Transport Minister told the Dáil:"I believe that should be shared, but with the proviso that it may change, and it may change for the better.
"If we see some of those other vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson or Curavac confirmed vaccine come into play, then we will have to continue to change again to actually advance."
No vaccine timeline has officially been set out by the Government since they began inoculating people against Covid-19 since January.
Those currently being vaccinated are people aged 65 years and older who live in long-term care facilities (group 1), frontline healthcare workers (group 2) and those aged 85 and older living in the community (the first part of group 3).
There has been no set timeline of how the rest of the vaccine rollout will play out.
Mr Ryan was replying to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy who called on the Government to present the information to the public.
"We need to see an actual rollout plan for the vaccine," she said.
"I know that depends on supply, but surely is there an indicative plan? A wall planner, a weekly or on a monthly basis of who gets the vaccine?
"A personnel plan? How many people we need and what locations are needed?
"I want to see that as soon as I can and I'm sure the public wants to do the same."
Ms Murphy said the Government's latest pandemic plan was halfhearted.
"The strategy announced for reducing the numbers appears to lack a strategy, and instead relies on people doing more of the same. People are losing hope, they're dejected, and increasingly feel the government is not in control. There's a half-hearted approach, a pat on the head and it's not convincing people," she said.
Ms Murphy queried if there was a public information campaign related to the spike in Covid cases in 18 to 24-year-olds and what the Government plans to do about issues in meat plants and scaling up track and trace.
Mr Ryan said that when caseloads go above a certain level, "it becomes very hard to do the contact tracing" but that the country is now back to a situation in terms of case numbers where it is possible.
"They have 900 people working flat out...where they're finding it difficult to actually trace, is not because of any flaw on their system but there is still widespread community transmission, and the characteristics of this new variant, it seems is such that it's very easily transferred in a way that's not easy to do the contact tracing," he said.
"There seems to be some instance of transmission with this new variant, where someone outside that close contract still transmits, and that makes it difficult for them to pursue it."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
