As we approach Christmas, many people are eager to receive their third or booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Announcements from the NIAC around people aged 50 and over and those with underlying health conditions are welcome. Will the Tánaiste advise when the HSE will operationalise this advice? This week the European Medicines Agency recommended that everybody aged 40 and over should be offered a booster as soon as possible. Will the Government write to NIAC seeking urgent consideration of this most important advice? When might people who received the one-shot Janssen vaccination expect to receive their booster?

Just under 700,000 people have received their third dose and we expect that number to be over 1 million by early December. Under the current guidance from NIAC, 2.5 million people are now eligible for a third dose. We should bear in mind that even when the vaccine programme was at full tilt, the maximum number of people we could vaccinate in any week was approximately 250,000, so it will take a bit of time to get through the people already eligible for a third dose. It will be well into January or February before that happens.

NIAC is now examining groups that include children aged between five and 11, and we anticipate the European Medicines Agency will give approval for that today, if it has not done so already. We have asked in particular for consideration of the group that received the single Janssen dose because there is evidence that immunity from that vaccine could fall as low as 20% or 30% within a few months. We are also asking that consideration be given to people under 50. As the Deputy rightly indicates, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, now recommends everybody over 40 should receive a third dose.