Covid-19 vaccine will not be privately available in Ireland as part of the launch

THE DEPLOYMENT OF the Covid-19 vaccine in Ireland will be carried out by state health agencies and will not be available through private sources.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told Dáil this afternoon that the launch of the vaccine would be jeopardized if non-state agencies “were to do their thing.”

Cabinet approved today the allocation strategy for the Covid-19 vaccines, detailing the sequence by which the different groups in this county would receive them.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said today that there should be “no barriers to people accessing a vaccine” and that the program will be “available free of charge to everyone in Ireland”.

The broader strategy on the launch of the vaccine will be delivered to the government on Friday by the High-Level Working Group on Covid-19 Vaccination. The strategy will be considered first by the Cabinet next week before its publication.

Speaking today about plans for the vaccine launch, Labor leader Alan Kelly TD asked the Taoiseach if it would be a “public only” program.

“Will the Taoiseach confirm to the house that the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, which is expected to occur very soon, will be a public-only campaign,” he said.

In other words, public organizations will do it and, obviously, although they can bring private organizations to help them, everything will be under the auspices of the State, and there will not be, at the same time, the possibility that private organizations that can afford it could potentially vaccinate separately to a national program.

The Taoiseach said it would have to be a display for the public only.

“It will have to be under the aegis of the state and the authority of the state because, first, targeting various vulnerable groups is key, and that would be in jeopardy if people were to do their thing,” Martin said. .

And the national acquisition of the vaccine, the State is acquiring the vaccine, in the first instance, as part of the European acquisition initiative and, therefore, we want to make sure we have data records of its administration to be able to monitor its absorption and its effectiveness and evaluate it.

The government has said that delivery of vaccines could begin in the Republic of Ireland next month, once the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives its approval.

The EMA is set to complete a review of the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine on December 29 and a decision on the Moderna vaccine could also come a couple of weeks later.

The European Commission has agreed advance purchase agreements with six vaccine developers and Ireland will have the capacity to purchase almost 16 million doses of vaccines.