Ministers still backing Stephen Donnelly despite vaccine target failures
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said ongoing delays of AstraZeneca vaccine delivery are 'very frustrating'. Picture: Julien Behal
Fine Gael and Green Party ministers insist they still have confidence in Fianna Fáil Health Minister Stephen Donnelly despite admissions his vaccine rollout targets will be significantly missed this month.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed his “disappointment” that only 1.1m of the initial 1.7m vaccine target will be delivered.
Yet it has been confirmed that the Cabinet held “absolutely no discussion” on the matter yesterday.
Government spokespersons for Fine Gael and Green ministers, speaking after Cabinet, voiced their “concerns” over the delays in vaccine delivery. Nonetheless, they backed Mr Donnelly.
HSE plans for vaccine rollout have changed up to 17 times already due to changes to deliveries and the vaccine priority lists, HSE chief executive Paul Reid told the Oireachtas health committee earlier yesterday.
Mr Reid defended the HSE’s handling of the rollout, describing the start of this year as “challenging” and “frustrating” at times.
An initial target to have 1.7m doses delivered by the end of March is now out of reach, he said.
A revised target of 1.24m could also be missed if erratic supplies continue from vaccine manufacturers, Mr Reid added.
“Realistically we’re looking at 1.1m, going into 1.2m in the first week of April,” he predicted.
That is because around 175,000 doses scheduled for delivery in the first quarter will only arrive at the very end of March.
"Our first quarter has been an experience of high levels of frustration on supply issues, to be frank, from the HSE's perspective," said Mr Reid.
"Certainly Pfizer has been more stable, but we did have one change to their supply line. Moderna of late, unstable, and certainly AstraZeneca being unstable.
Mr Reid said IDA Ireland had looked into potentially making vaccines in Ireland, but it was deemed not feasible.
Last night, Mr Donnelly said the ongoing delays of AstraZeneca vaccine delivery are "very frustrating", but the target to vaccinate 82% of eligible adults by June is still intact.
Nonetheless, the HSE remains hopeful the supply issues will ease in the second quarter, with 3.8m doses targeted.
That figure includes 600,000 of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is still subject to approval by the European Medicines Agency.
A further 30 deaths and 311 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by officials from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre last night.
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