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THE ROLLOUT OF the Covid-19 vaccine in Ireland will be undertaken by State healthcare bodies and will not be made available through private sources.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil this afternoon that the vaccine rollout would be jeopardised if non-state bodies were “off doing their own thing”.
The Cabinet today signed off on the allocation strategy for the Covid-19 vaccines, detailing the sequencing by which different groups in this county would receive them.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said today that there should be “no barrier to people accessing a vaccine” and that the programme would be “available free of charge to everyone in Ireland”.
The wider strategy on the rollout of the vaccine is set to be delivered to government on Friday by the High-Level Task Force on Covid-19 Vaccination. The strategy is set to be considered first by Cabinet next week before it is published.
Speaking today about plans for the vaccine roll-out, Labour leader Alan Kelly TD asked the Taoiseach whether it would be a “public-only” programme.
“Will the Taoiseach confirm to the house that the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, which will hopefully be happening quite soon, will be a public-only campaign,” he said.
In other words, it will be done by public bodies and, obviously, while they can bring in private bodies to help them, it will all be under the auspices of the State, and there will not be, in tandem, the possibility whereby private organisations which can afford to do so could potentially vaccinate separate to a national programme.
The Taoiseach said it would have to be a public-only roll-out.
“It will have to be under the aegis of the State and the authority of the State because, first, the allocation to various vulnerable groupings is key, and that would be jeopardised if people were going off, doing their own thing,” Martin said.
And the national procurement of the vaccine, the State is procuring the vaccine, in the first instance, as part of the European procurement initiative and therefore, we want to make sure we have data records of its administration so we can monitor its uptake and its effectiveness, and evaluate it.
The government has said that vaccine delivery could start in the Republic of Ireland as early as next month, once approval is given by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The EMA is set to complete a review of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine on 29 December with a decision on the Moderna vaccine also potentially happening a couple of weeks later.
The European Commission has agreed advance purchase arrangements with six vaccine developers and Ireland will have the capacity to acquire almost 16 million vaccine doses.
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Some people are equal to everyone else,it must be a first in Ireland if not the World.
Has there been any documentation released about the vaccine as I would like to read before any decision I may have to take.
@Siobhan Rosemary: pick up a packet of paracetamol and the same information that drug companies supply with the packet will be exactly the same with the vaccine.
@Siobhan Rosemary: Yes, there has. Voysey et al, 2020.
18month waiting list for vaccines so
@Alan Curley: Ya your right the most wealthy should obviously get it first.
@Lad: Not speaking for Mr Curley but I think that you took that comment only one way…..The waiting lists for most things in the HSE public system is quite long, perhaps Mr Curley was suggesting that there is an alternative option that wouldnt have such a wait….like say a private company to tender and complete the roll out in a specific time frame….not that those who can afford to pay for it will get the vaccine first.
Kelly is gutted he won’t have something to whinge about.
Should ban private hospitals and schools while they are at it
@Ivan Ó Sirideáin: But anyone that avails of private hospitals and schooling is actually paying for it twice.
Also what is the benefit of banning private versions if public hospitals and schools are already at capacity?
Is there an existing law that will prevent private medicine practises administering it, or has govt to create a new law?
Doesnt seem to bother him that private entities rip off the citizens on car insurance, health insurance, even business enterprise insurance ,which the taxpayer is incentivising for employment,etc.
Yet the same business’s are being closed down by extortionate premiums & legal costs, with the loss of the same jobs.
When, if ever,will these highly paid people get a grip on this scandalous & disastrous problem?
I’ve an underlying wealth condition so I should definitely get it first
Like people won’t fly to New York for it
@Crocodylus Pontifex: for both doses?
@D Mems: don’t they sell Domestos here?
Nothing to stop private clinics buying it and making it available privately. Martin is full of it.
I was wondering about that. Good to know. Might be an issue for younger people who want to travel but can’t until they’re vaccinated as looks like being the case with certain countries and airlines
The irony…
Why not? We know the HSE will take an eternity to roll this out, with all the normal civil service bureaucracy and inefficiency. Why not allow private health insurers to deliver to their paying customers? I’d pay for it now versus the HSE in 9 months time.
have your say