The Covid-19 vaccine allocation strategy was launched last week but to the extreme disappointment of many, people with disabilities were not mentioned once in the plan. People with disabilities were and still are more negatively impacted by the pandemic than those without disabilities. Many were forced to isolate or cocoon at home which has had a very serious emotional, physical and financial impact on them and their families. Many are not in a position to participate in the so-called new normal involving social distancing, the wearing of masks and regular hand sanitising. This negative impact has lasted for ten months now and it is critical that it is not allowed to last one moment longer than absolutely necessary.

In England the registered Covid-19 death rate for people with disabilities is four times higher than the general population and people with a learning disability are dying from Covid at a much younger age than the general population. I do not think we have the equivalent figures for Ireland but I ask that people with disabilities be considered in the context of the vaccine plan.

I have noticed that there is a consistent theme emanating from Sinn Féin that the Government is discriminating against people with disabilities in the vaccine sequencing but that is not true. I accept that people will engage in politics from time to time but it is not a very nice form of politics to play that sort of line. The national immunisation advisory committee recommended to NPHET a particular sequencing for who should get the vaccine first. It recommended that older people in residential settings should receive it first. People with underlying conditions are high up on the priority list and that includes people with disabilities. Clinical decisions will be made, with the input of GPs, to determine the type of vaccine to be administered to people and when they should get it. This is not about politics or about the Government wanting to discriminate against one group or another. The national immunisation advisory committee has advised on the sequencing and the document is live. Hopefully the vaccines will come quickly and we will see a ramping up of vaccinations in the country. I want to assure people in the disability sector that there has been no singling out or premeditated decision to leave out one group and include another. That is not the way this works.