Michael Fisher
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD has told the Dáil that a high-level taskforce has been created by the government to oversee the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines in Ireland once they are approved by the statutory authorities. Mr Martin said that targeting people who are vulnerable to Covid will be the immediate priority. He revealed that Ireland is due to receive around 1% of whatever vaccines are made available through the EU’s collective purchase scheme.
Mr Martin was replying to Labour leader Alan Kelly TD who said the government needed a detailed plan very soon on how vaccines will eventually be rolled out by the State. He argued that the work programme of the high-level taskforce would have to be regularly updated and, consequently, the public needed to be informed weekly about developments. The Taoiseach declined to commit to a weekly system and added that owing to significant issues, such as vaccine manufacture and transport logistics, it was important that there was…