Will the Taoiseach confirm to the House that the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, which will hopefully happen quite soon, will be a public-only campaign? In other words, it will be done by public bodies and 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 that can afford to do so could vaccinate separate from a national programme. Can he confirm we are in a position, as regards procurement in this State, to roll out the vaccine once we get it or, in other words, that we will have all the facilities and raw materials?

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. As to 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.