For a number of weeks now, I have been raising an issue on behalf of more than 500,000 people, those who have got their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. These are mostly 60-year-olds to 69-year-olds but they also include some over 50s, some of whom are in cohort 4 and some healthcare workers who got it earlier. These people are in some cases the most vulnerable but they will have the longest wait before they get fully vaccinated over the summer and will not necessarily enjoy the same freedoms, potentially, as the rest of us. There are two aspects to this. Now that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, NIAC, has recommended that the length of time be eight weeks rather than 12 weeks, I want to know when will this be implemented because I have literally hundreds of emails, calls and texts from all over the country asking the same questions. Second, given the efficacy of two doses of AstraZeneca is not as good as AstraZeneca plus Pfizer/BioNTech, will Pfizer/BioNTech be considered as a second dose as well?

We have updated advice now from NIAC which is recommending that we can go back to an eight-week interval between AstraZeneca doses. That is welcome news for healthcare workers and others - people in their 50s and 60s who have received AstraZeneca and would like to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible. We want them to be fully vaccinated as soon as possible. The recommendation from NIAC is in line with the European Medicines Agency, EMA, which says 56 days is a sufficient interval between doses, but not less.

What is happening now, over the next couple of days and over the weekend is that the HSE is working out if and how it can operationalise that. Supplies from AstraZeneca have been patchy, inadequate and unsatisfactory and we want to make sure we have enough doses to do that. The intention is to move in that direction and to get people who have had their first dose of AstraZeneca, AZ, getting their second dose as soon as possible.