There has been palpable disappointment this week in response to the latest Covid announcement. The tourism and hospitality sector and young people feel particularly left behind. All Members share the frustration that is out there. We all know that Covid-19 has not been fair on anyone and we all want to be on the far side of this pandemic. The vaccine is our best way out of it. I, like so many others, have not been offered a vaccine yet and I am really encouraged by the national immunisation advisory council, NIAC, advice that the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines can be given to young people because the benefits outweigh the risks. I will take any vaccine I am given, as will most people my age. Can the Tánaiste give us 30-something-year-olds and the 20-somethings clarity on what an accelerated vaccine programme will look like for us? Will we be able to get vaccinated in our local pharmacy? How quickly will the roll-out ramp up?

The new guidance and advice from NIAC allows us to do two things. It allows us to speed up delivery of a second dose for people waiting for one, particularly those who had the AstraZeneca vaccine. That will be done in a matter of two to three weeks at the most. For younger people, that is, those under 40 who have not been vaccinated yet, it will speed that up as well. We are just working out the logistics and implications of that. One thing at which we are looking is making the Janssen vaccine available through pharmacies to younger people. It is available to the over-50s now. We are also looking at speeding up the online registration process because we now have a bigger number of vaccine to offer people in their 30s and, subsequently, those in their 20s. However, what I cannot do at the moment is give exact dates because we do not yet have exact volumes.

We need to talk to the pharmacists and the HSE needs to talk to its staff.