The Labour Party wishes the Government well in the strategy the Taoiseach announced yesterday. The country needs it to deliver and we will play a constructive role in whatever way we can. We will also criticise where necessary. I hope and pray that the Government delivers with regard to the changes it made regarding the vaccine prioritisation. If not, gardaí, special needs assistants, teachers, carers, retail workers, etc. will feel very let down.

Everything that has been done and announced yesterday is based on underlining data relating to vaccines. The Government has put all its eggs in the vaccine basket. I just want to dig into the details of this data.

The statistics we have been given to date are that approximately 800,000 vaccines have been administered, with approximately 578,000 first doses and 225,000 second doses. We have also been told that all over 70s will be vaccinated by the end of May. This was meant to be the middle of May but it slipped by two weeks. Allowing for that, it will now be the end of May. This is great news but I just want to dig into the data.

We have now been told that, by the end of June, 80%, approximately 3.8 million of the population over the age of 16, will be "offered" their first vaccine. How many of them will actually get it? My wedding anniversary is in July. I am going to offer to take my wife out for dinner in a restaurant she chooses. I do not know, however, if I am actually going to be able to take her out to a restaurant in July because I do not know if they will be open.

I am sure the Deputy will.

He could bring a flask.

Having said that, in all seriousness, I want to ask the Taoiseach about the word "offered". By the end of June, will 80% of the population have received a dose of vaccine? Will they, at least, be in a position where they would have received it? It is a key question.

I was thrilled and delighted to hear the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, say earlier on "Today with Claire Byrne" that in April a portal will be offered to everybody to apply for their vaccine. That means all the further cohorts and various different age groups can do this. Will the Taoiseach confirm that this will happen? Will he confirm that everybody will be able to apply for vaccine in April?

Considering that everything depends on the volume of vaccines and that we are getting 1 million doses in April, May and June, will the Taoiseach tell us how many vaccines will be given to Ireland over the three months by the four companies, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna?

I thank the Deputy for raising those issues.

The vaccination programme is a key part of exiting Covid-19 and endeavouring to bring life back to some degree of normality. The measures we adopted yesterday were essentially designed to continue to keep the pressure on the virus, particularly over the next four weeks, in order to reap a bigger dividend later in the summer, rather than taking risks now, which would have the consequence of increasing the prevalence of the disease and creating more pressure on our hospitals before the summer even starts. Such a scenario could potentially mean the rest of the summer would be mopping up if there was an escalation of cases and so forth. That is the thinking behind it, particularly as we are rolling out the vaccination programme.

We are into a different era in terms of the first three months. We always knew the volumes would be low but even that knowledge was compounded by the fact that we had difficulties with delivery schedules. AstraZeneca's supply and manufacturing issues are well known in respect of not fulfilling the European Union contracts.

That said the data is much stronger for the second quarter, April, May and June. The target is to have 80% not just offered vaccination but to get vaccinated by the end of June. The European Union has a figure of 70% across Europe, on average, to be fully vaccinated by the end of July. There will be an intense vaccination programme during the summer months. The situation is improving for the companies involved. The Halix plant has been authorised by the European Medicines Agency, EMA, which is significant for AstraZeneca's capacity to provide vaccines. Moderna has stronger manufacturing capacity within Europe, particularly in Switzerland. Pfizer-BioNTech has its Marburg plant in Germany. Johnson & Johnson's supply chain is independent of the US in terms of its contractual commitments to Europe. It means the national task force on vaccines is more confident in terms of supply lines and the delivery of vaccines. That focus will switch to the administration of far higher volumes of vaccines in the coming while.

With the evidence the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, has put together, it and NPHET are saying that the biggest factor in mortality and in severe illness arising from Covid is age. The change announced is about getting the most vulnerable in our society vaccinated as fast as we possibly can. It is about having no barriers or obstacles in the way of getting mass vaccinations done.

Many older teachers and key workers more generally, as well as the more vulnerable, will now be vaccinated more quickly.

I thank the Taoiseach for answering one of the three questions. I am delighted to hear that 80% of the population over 16 will be vaccinated by the end of June. That will be an incredible achievement and I look forward to it.

That is a first dose.

Yes, but it will be a vaccination received.

Will the Taoiseach confirm that the portal will be in place in April? Will he confirm that everybody will be able to apply for it? What number of vaccines from the four companies will be arriving here in the three months of the second quarter?

On what happened in the Beacon Hospital, the old private school club of access to whatever one wants, whenever one wants, was at play again. The Beacon got access to vaccines and became a vaccination centre early on. There were issues about it vaccinating its own staff above some who should have been prioritised in January. Then there was the fact that it would not sign up to the national ICU plan. Then there was what happened over the past number of weeks which was brought to light by Craig Hughes.

Why did we offer the Beacon as a hospital for vaccinations? Who decided that?

The Deputy's time is up.

I know the hospital did it for free. Considering it had the privilege of doing this and the way in which it administered State product, who made that decision? We need to know.

Deputy, please. I call the Taoiseach.

The national task force envisages having the portal up and running in mid-April, perhaps the third week in April. I will get the specific dates for the Deputy. That is the intention.

On the specifics of each company, I will get the details on each of them for the second quarter for the Deputy. On average, between April and May, we are looking at 2 million doses with a higher amount in May over April. It is 860,000 by the end of April with a higher amount in May. Delivery schedules will determine the weekly administration. There will be higher figures again in June and July.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Time is up.

The Beacon is a good vaccination centre. It was facilitating vaccinations, particularly for the people in that area, as efficiently and effectively as it could.

Thank you, Taoiseach. Time is up. We move next to the Rural Independent Group and Deputy Michael Collins.

I want to raise the fishing deal the Government agreed to which is now seen as the greatest political sell-out of any industry that any Government has ever agreed to in the history of our State. This sell-out has angered fishing communities beyond words from Union Hall to Castletownbere, all along the coast to Donegal. New evidence in replies from a series of parliamentary questions confirms that the Government blindly supported the EU negotiation mandate in respect of the Brexit negotiations. In doing so, the Government betrayed not only the sector and coastal communities but the entire country.

This provides infuriating confirmation that the Irish fishing industry must now pay a huge price for our Government and Ministers opting to tow Brussel's line in these Brexit negotiations. The shocking and utter lack of engagement and dialogue with the EU side, on behalf of the Irish fishing sector, by the Government and the Minister in the months leading up to the Brexit deal is now glaringly obvious.

In fact, at his first EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 21 September last, the Minister failed to raise the Irish fishing sector's pre-Brexit concerns. At his second meeting since becoming Minister, on 19 and 20 October, he again failed to table or raise the implications of Brexit for the sector. Instead, he chose to engage in a rather meaningless three-way bilateral meeting with fisheries ministers from France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Astonishingly, at the third Council meeting on 16 November 2020, weeks before a deal was to be struck, no fisheries items were raised. One would be forgiven for wondering what was being discussed at such meetings.

Further meetings attended by our Minister on 27 November and 15 and 16 December, at which the fisheries element of the Brexit negotiations was discussed, point to the Minister acting as a protector of European quota interests rather than the protector of the Irish share of the quota. All in all, this new information about the Minister's and the Government's activities in protecting Irish fishermen's rights illustrates the complete blindness with which the Taoiseach and the Minister trusted the EU negotiators. It also clearly demonstrates that the Minister and the Government strategically and deliberately chose not to stand up for Irish fishing interests. Instead, they sought praise from the Brussels elite. Sadly, at a time when Irish fishermen and women were depending solely on the Government to protect their interests, that did not occur.

In an overall context, data from Dublin City University estimate the Irish share of total fish catch in the Irish maritime zone is only 20%, which means that the other 80% is caught by foreign vessels. The Brexit fisheries deal means that Irish vessels operating in UK waters were hit with massive quota reductions while other EU countries got sweet deals. Despite the fact that foreign vessels continue to extract 80% of the fish from Irish waters, we have a Government and a Minister who are hell-bent on forging ahead with wide-scale decommissioning of the Irish fleet. This is being dressed up as some sort of review process. All the while, foreign vessels will be allowed to continue fishing in our waters. The sector was only seeking a fairer distribution of quota - nothing more, nothing less - and it was betrayed in that regard. The Government should have made the decision to adopt a much tougher stance during the Brexit negotiations. Why did it choose to let the Irish fishing sector down? Instead of forging ahead with decommissioning, will the Taoiseach give us a guarantee that he will seek a greater share of the quota for Irish vessels in the Irish maritime zone in order to make up for the mess created by the Government's own inaction?

I reject what the Deputy has said. He accused the Government and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, of not negotiating or engaging on the issue of fisheries during the Brexit negotiations. I consulted with fisheries representatives and so did the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, who had ongoing engagement with Michel Barnier. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine also had an ongoing alliance with counterparts from like-minded countries in respect of the fisheries issue right up to the end of the Brexit negotiations.

Sell-out.

Everybody knew that a no-deal Brexit would have been the ultimate disaster for fisheries because of the historic catch we have in British waters. Everybody knew from the moment Brexit was announced and was later passed by referendum, that we were in difficulty as regards fisheries. Deep down, the fishing industry realised that. I recall meetings four years ago at which the consequences of Brexit for fisheries, and Irish fisheries in particular, were well known.

I have never thought Brexit was a good idea. The Deputy is blaming the Government as opposed to looking at the real issue here, which is Brexit and the decision to forge ahead with it.

It was meant to be-----

We certainly had to avoid a no-deal Brexit. I am sure the Deputy will accept that a no-deal Brexit would have been a disaster for fishing. In that context, we fought for as high a share of quota for the Irish fishing industry as we possibly could in order to ensure we can create viability into the future.

It is an extremely difficult deal for fishing. We are not at all happy with Brexit and its implications for fishing but neither would I do as the Deputy has done, which is to try to make this a simplistic issue. He has not really created any alternative ideas other than suggesting that we adopt a much tougher stance, whatever that means in practical terms. I do not think it means a whole lot and is nothing much other than rhetoric. There comes a time in negotiations or planning for any industry where, in trying to ensure and protect livelihoods, we need to go beyond simplistic rhetoric and concentrate on a solutions-based approach. The Minister engaged energetically on this issue, as did his Department, with other EU member states whose fishing industries were likely to be most affected by it. They had a strong alliance on this matter up to the very end. It is regrettable that the UK Government adopted the aggressive position it took in respect of fisheries. That was obviously a factor as well.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. He said he consulted with the industry but he obviously did not listen to it or to the fishermen's groups. Listening to his reply, it is clear he has no future vision for the fishing sector in Ireland beyond decommissioning. He has no honest answers for the Government's shambolic handling of the Brexit negotiations, from which we came out the worst in Europe.

I welcome the Taoiseach's sudden change of heart in setting up a fishing task force in February. A few months previously, in November, when I requested a task force for west Cork he more or less called task forces a waste of time. Why has the Government not been able to secure a bluefin tuna quota for the Irish fishing industry? Other EU countries are negotiating quotas additional to those they have already and we have none. The crisis this fishing sector is going through is not only affecting the larger fishermen. It will also have serious implications for the inshore sector in this country. If the Government's only solution is a decommissioning process that will lead to numerous job losses along our coastline and west Cork in particular, what is its solution in respect of these job losses? I have spent years in the Dáil pleading with this Government and that which preceded it to fight and save our fishing industry from Brexit. I pleaded with the Taoiseach during the negotiations to form a Government to appoint a Minister for fisheries and he refused. In layman's terms, if this Government was a company that dealt with its affairs the way the Taoiseach and his Government have dealt with the fishing industry in Ireland, both he, as CEO, and his board would have been fired months ago for their incompetence and shocking handling of our most precious resource.

The Minister has established a task force on the Irish fishing industry and creating a sustainable future for it. Resources will be allocated to ensure that and to continue to fight for and ensure balance in quota distribution. I wrote to the President of the Commission in the aftermath of the deal pointing out the disproportionality of the deal on fisheries with the United Kingdom and its implications for the Irish fishing industry and the need to quickly restore balance to the member states' fishery quota shares. The Minister continues to pursue the matter actively and raised it again at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 25 January. The cost of the final quota transfer by Ireland will be approximately €43 million, which is about a 15% loss of the overall value. That is serious. This is obviously something to which the Government will respond as strongly as we possibly can as regards the allocation.