801. Deputy Eoghan Murphy asked the Minister for Health his views on the Austrian led First-Movers vaccination group. [12740/21]

Ireland is participating in a Procurement Exercise being operated by the European Commission on behalf of Member States to procure suitable, safe and effective vaccines, in sufficient quantities, to combat COVID-19. Six APAs have been negotiated by the Commission under this process to date.

Government approval has been obtained to opt-into a sixth, but this is conditional on certain trial progression criteria being met.

Ireland has opted-in to pro rata allocation of BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Ireland has also secured additional doses of the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine via options and top up contracts, which will bring the current total of BioNTech / Pfizer doses secured to approximately 6.5 million doses. Ireland has also signalled interest in obtaining 1.64 million additional doses of the Moderna vaccine. Ireland now expects to receive a total of 1.1 million doses of the three approved vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca) from the start of the vaccination programme to the end of March.

Ireland has signalled its solidarity with the EU approach and has, through its participation, gained access to a broad range of vaccines that it might not otherwise have access to, and at the cost agreed collectively by the EU.