I want to add my voice to the call for more vaccinations. We all appreciate that home helps and people on the front line have to be vaccinated first but I want people to be aware of the number of businesses whose doors are closed in County Kerry and in the town of Killarney, which has not a light in it. The Taoiseach is at the wheel. He is the Taoiseach of the country and is the Head of the Government. I ask that he rescues and salvages the tourism industry for the people in Kerry and all around the Ring of Kerry and to think of all the coach operators whose buses are parked in their yards. The Taoiseach must be aware of this and pull out all the stops to ensure vaccination. At 100,000 vaccines per month, it would take eight years to vaccinate all the people in the country. The Taoiseach must wake up and take serious action to ramp up the vaccinations because that is what is needed at this time and no more lockdowns.

We are in the middle of a global pandemic and the virus is wreaking devastation on many industries, on many sectors and on society at large. That is the reality. The vaccination programme offers light at the end of the tunnel. We are part of a European pre-purchase agreement process with a number of companies for the delivery of the vaccine.

The first such company was Pfizer-BioNTech and it is delivering its vaccine to Ireland. Moderna has followed with low levels of vaccine. As soon as we get vaccines in, we will administer them, and that is what we have been doing. As I have said already in the House today, when the AstraZeneca vaccine is authorised, it will give us higher volumes. We will get higher volumes from Pfizer-BioNTech when it has reconfigured its manufacturing capacity, and that will also happen for the additional amounts we have purchased in March. I anticipate that by April, May or June, the issue will not be vaccine supply. Rather it will be a national effort with a very strong and expansive workforce to get the vaccine administered.