Gardaí should be vaccinated after the vulnerable — McEntee

Minister Helen McEntee said she would relay the concerns about vaccine priority of Garda representative groups to colleagues in Government. 

The Justice Minister believes Gardai should be vaccinated after the vulnerable.

Minister Helen McEntee said she would relay the concerns about vaccine priority of Garda representative groups to colleagues in Government.

Ms McEntee met with the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) today. 

A spokesman told the Irish Examiner that Ms McEntee agrees with the GRA and AGSI that members of An Garda Síochána should be vaccinated as quickly as possible, once the vulnerable have been covered.

The news comes as the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors asked the Minister for Justice to clarify if people in prison will be vaccinated before gardaí.

AGSI general secretary Antoinette Cunningham told RTÉ radio’s News at One that it would appear that was the case. She called for a risk assessment "between someone in a confined space and somebody on operational frontline being exposed on a continuous basis.

"There are suggestions that we could be in group 10, but we don't know for sure where we are," Ms Cunningham said.

"We don’t want to pitch ourselves against any group, we've been steadfast in our opinion, that the most vulnerable in society and frontline workers should be vaccinated first, but if the reports are accurate that people who work in a finance section of the HSE did receive vaccinations, then really you have to question where the governance and the accountability of the vaccination programme actually is."

Ms Cunningham said she questioned the risk assessments that had been carried out to determine the ranking in the vaccination programme. 

She queried should further risk assessment be conducted to provide more clarity to NIAC about the level of risk attached to specific jobs.

Public fatigue was setting in, she said, which made the job of the gardaí more difficult.