There were heated exchanges in the Dáil as Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was accused of “incompetence” in a row over the drop in the expected vaccine delivery figures for April.
Last week Mr Donnelly said in the Dáil about 1.1 million vaccines were expected in April.
Sinn Féin health spokesman pressed the Minister about expected vaccine delivery numbers for April after the Minister was reported to have told his party colleagues that 860,000 would be delivered in April.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar later clarified that “112,000 vaccines arrived last night which meant that we reached the target estimate of receiving 1.187 million vaccines in the first quarter. Supplies are “firming up” and the Government expects one million doses to have been administered by April 7th.
Mr Donnelly said the expected delivery was "slightly below a million" but said that he was reluctant to give specific forecasts on figures that we all know will change, because when they do change regularly, they cause anxiety.
Mr Cullinane said however that the Minister was giving different figures to different people and this caused confusion and “does not inspire confidence”.
But Mr Donnelly said that once figures were given changed that “people jump up and down and say this is an outrage and it undermines the programme”.
This prompted an angry outburst from Labour leader Alan Kelly who accused Mr Donnelly of “incompetence” and failing to be accountable to the Dáil because he had repeatedly failed to give him forecasts despite pledging to send him the numbers.
Mr Kelly said “this whole charade is a waste of time if you’re not going to answer questions”. He added: “Transparency is your friend here. Giving out the estimates is what you should be doing.”
He said: “What the hell is going on here? You’re responsible to Dáil Éireann and the people of Ireland and you’re refusing to give out the estimated figures for vaccines for the next three months which the whole country is dependent on.”
“This isn’t about having confidence in you. This is about incompetence,” he said.
“I will not blame you if the figures change. We all know the figures change.”
Mr Donnelly said Mr Kelly had a right to make accusations “but you’ve left me 10 seconds to respond”. He said “I thought you might be looking for the figures and I brought in those detailed figures to give them to you but with respect you haven’t given me any time to give them to you so I will revert to you”.
Earlier Minister of State for Health Frankie Feighan said there were 355 outbreaks among socially excluded groups with the largest among the Traveller community who “account for three quarters of all outbreaks, four fifths of all cases and nine out of ten hospitalisation. “Regrettably, there have been eight deaths among Travellers associated with these outbreaks. This trend is reflected in the data for the past week, with 21 outbreaks and 112 associated cases among the Traveller population.”
He said in addiction services there were 10 outbreaks with 60 cases and 24 outbreaks and 63 cases on homeless services. Among the Roma community, there have been 11 outbreaks and 72 cases.
Social Democrats joint leader Róisín Shortall also accused the Minister of failing to give answers and said she had repeatedly asked Mr Donnelly to publish the plan for the roll-out of vaccines.
“I have lost track of the number of notes that have been promised. It is not possible for Opposition spokespersons to get answers to questions”. She said the Minister does not answer “and there’s no other way of getting them”.
Ms Shortall said 18,000 doses are being administered on average every day but “when we get to the point in a few days’ time of receiving nearly 1 million doses in April, we will have to increase the daily number of vaccines to 33,000 per day.
“That is nearly double the maximum that has been done up to now, on an average basis,” and by June and July “we will need the capacity to deliver and administer 50,000 vaccines per day”. She said pharmacists “have no idea where they fit into the plan”.
Government backbencher Marc MacSharry said the plan to ease restrictions “lacks ambition” and said “there’s no one in charge of the vaccine rollout. Once there is plausible deniability, everyone gets blamed.”
The Fianna Fáil TD claimed “it’s live horse and eat grass, and things will get better and in about two years’ time we can all look forward to eating al fresco, two people per acre while it’s raining”.
But the Minister said Mr MacSharry was “screaming for zero Covid five or six days ago, is now screaming that we’re not opening up quickly enough”.
Mr Donnelly said other countries are experiencing “brutal resurgences” said the next six to eight weeks are vital.
