Prior to the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the media was briefed by the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, that 875,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine would be approved for use and purchase by the Cabinet. Did that happen? We all know now there will be issues in the roll-out of the vaccine for those over 70 years. I am decoding what the Tánaiste said earlier but essentially we will not have the same amount of vaccine, given yesterday's decision on AstraZeneca. Was the decision made and can the Tánaiste tell the House the date for when all front-line Covid-facing healthcare workers will be fully vaccinated?

I am dealing with a situation in my home hospital of Nenagh where many of the staff have not been vaccinated. There has been a Covid outbreak there.

They are so scared because of the scale of Covid-19 in the hospital. When will all of our doctors, nurses and other Covid facing front-line workers be vaccinated? Surely the Tánaiste has a date.

I thank Deputy Kelly. That decision was not made at Cabinet. It is still pending and still under negotiation. With regard to front-line healthcare workers, it is expected that all will have received both doses of a vaccine by the end of March. Some have already received both doses. Others are still waiting for their first dose.

I am talking about front-line facing people.

Yes, those healthcare workers who deal with patients. It is expected that all public facing, front-line facing healthcare workers will have both doses by the end of March. Some do already. Some have not had the first dose yet. Obviously, the AstraZeneca vaccine can now be prioritised for those healthcare workers.

To clarify, the number of doses we will receive has not gone down. It is still 1.2 million between the start of the year and the end of March. We will still be able to start vaccinating the over 85s from the middle of February.

Thank you, Tánaiste.

It may go slower for the over 70s-----

Go raibh maith agat. I am going to move on.

-----but that will allow it to go faster for other groups, including healthcare workers and people under 70 who have-----

Thank you. We move now to the Social Democrats.