I refer to the roll-out of the vaccine in the European Union and the European vaccine policy programme. At the moment it is playing out like a bad soap opera for countries that want to get access to the vaccine. Other European countries, namely, Hungary, France and Germany, have looked beyond the framework to acquire vaccines from China or Russia. Has the Government explored going outside the framework and looked at the Sputnik vaccine in particular? Has the Government corresponded with the Russian ambassador, who said Russia had availability of its vaccine? Will the Government go beyond the framework to look for other vaccines?

We will explore any avenue to secure more vaccine supply for Ireland. It is a good thing that we are part of the European framework. I remember what it was like in the first wave of the pandemic when countries fought each other for PPE, testing kits, swabs and reagents. It is better that we have collective action here and that all European countries went together and secured the contracts we did. On our own we may have done better but we also may have done much worse. The fact that we have the buying power of the European Union, on balance, is to our advantage. While we are not doing as well as the UK, the US, Israel or the United Arab Emirates in terms of vaccination, Europe is well ahead of the rest of the world in that regard. I have had some direct contact with the Israeli ambassador. I have not had any contact with the Russian ambassador but other members of Government may have. We are willing to consider any vaccine that is approved by the EMA but we are not willing to do what some countries have done and bypass normal procedures to give emergency authorisation to a vaccine on a national basis. We want it to be approved by the EMA.