Stephen Donnelly tells the Dáil that 83% of people aged 65-69 have now registered for a #covid19ireland vaccine, and the portal will expand to take bookings from 60-64s from tomorrow
NEW: Donnelly confirms to Dáil he expects a recommendation "early next week" on use of J&J vaccine
[This means any decision to space out the Pfizer/Moderna doses will be pushed further back, as NIAC's view on increasing the interval is partly dependant on the portfolio of other vaccines available]
"Changes like this are going to keep coming at us," Donnelly says; "we're going to have to continue to adapt."
Donnelly tells @davidcullinane that just under 940,000 vaccines are expected to arrive in April; this includes the accelerated delivery of Pfizer doses, but also 41,000 J&J, and a large shipment of AstraZeneca which had been originally expected in March
Donnelly: the Expert Advisory Group on Travel met yesterday; he expects to receive a recommendation on adding India to MHQ this week
Donnelly notes that the 'Indian variant' has not yet been officially categorised as a 'variant of concern'
Labour's Brendan Howlin asks whether Govt is confident that it will get the 840k AstrsZeneca doses needed to vaccinate the 60-69s, and whether it's fair that this vulnerable group would have to wait longer for full cover

Donnelly notes that J&J may yet be cleared for that group
Donnelly says it is his position that those who have already received a first Pfizer/Moderna dose should still be given their second appointment four weeks later - but will reconsider if NIAC offer an "overwhelming" argument for those existing appointments to be put back
Donnelly says he had a constructive meeting with Catholic Bishops on Monday, and told them that the statutory instrument did not explicitly single out religion, nor does it forbid a priest from tending to a grieving/bereaved family or doing other pastoral work
Donnelly says he has joined Ireland to a legal case being taken by the European Commission against AstraZeneca over its "complete failure to meet its contractual agreements"
Asked about sporadic release of vaccine shipment forecasts, Donnelly six that within days of the last full release of figures (which was two weeks ago), all but one of the figures for Vaccine X in Month Y had been revised Image

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More from @gavreilly

24 Apr
The Citizens' Assembly on Gender Equality has issued a whole raft of recommendations, including… [thread]

• Insert a new explicit clause into Article 40 on gender equality and non-discrimination
• Replace the text of Article 41.2 (woman in home) with wider clause on carers
• Amend Article 41 to protect private and family (incl non-marital) life
• Maternity leave for all elected reps
• Extend gender quotas for party candidates to local, Seanad and European Elections by the end of 2023
• Make funding to public bodies contingent on reaching a 40% gender balance quota by 2025.
• Require private companies to have at least 40% gender balance on their boards.
• Make public funding to cultural, sports, arts, media organisations contingent on a quota of 30% by '25
Read 10 tweets
22 Apr
🦠 #COVID19ireland
10 deaths; 617 cases

⏪ Thursdays:
15/04: 309
08/04: 400

📈 5d avg: 416
📈 7d avg: 417
(Last wk: 389)

📆 14d incidence: 119/100k
(Last wk: 123)

🏥 In hospital: 179
(Last wk: 184)

In ICU: 48
(Last wk: 51)

Vaccines:
💉 878,823
💉💉 362,142
@VirginMediaNews ImageImage
@VirginMediaNews Of the 10 deaths reported today, 7 occured in April, 1 in March, 1 in February and 1 in January
Of the 617 cases reported today; half are under 33 and 70% are under 45.

236 of the cases are in Dublin, 84 in Donegal, 37 in Kildare, 34 in Tipperary, 30 in Offaly.
Read 4 tweets
22 Apr
Bit of a cri de coeur from Stephen Donnelly, after @MickBarryTD urges the Government not to reopen too soon and to risk another wave of hospitals being overwhelmed…
"We need to be very careful right now. We’re in a sightly risky position, in that all fo the indicators are very positive, but we are not through this…
"Too many of us believe we are though this; that we don’t need to be as careful, that we can have as many social interactions, that we can meet friends in houses, because Ireland is doing well. But the reason that Ireland is doing well is because we’ve kept to the measures…
Read 8 tweets
29 Mar
It’s… 🥁 Speculation Day!

Ahead of tomorrow’s formal announcements on April 5 restrictions, today NPHET and the Cabinet sub-committee meet to discuss what might be feasible.

Thread:
@VirginMediaNews
🏋️ The 5km Exercise Limit

The easiest one to lift: outdoor activity generally carries much less risk, and if a family is doing so alone then the risk of transmission is virtually zero.

Some want it 10k to keep some structure, others want county-wide - some even think, scrap it.
👷 Construction

Currently only ‘essential’ and local authority building is allowed - whether to allow more? The lobby is vocal and the housing shortage is acute but the sector is so large that mass-mobilisation of hundreds of thousands may bring workers too close together.
Read 8 tweets
27 Mar
🕐 Ireland used to have its own time zone, ‘Dublin Mean Time’, 25’21” behind Britain (the distance in latitude between Greenwich and Dunsink).

Britain introduced summer time in May 1916 as a wartime efficiency, and forced Ireland into synchronicity when it ended that October.
Also, as we yet again dither on whether to scrap summer time and/or diverge from Northern Ireland: we’ve diverted before.

The UK observed ‘double summer time’ in 1940-45 (another wartime efficiency), and again in 1947; Belfast was an hour ahead of Dublin during this time.
This has really taken off! I should add: before 1880 it was common for towns to have their own local mean time (‘Cork Mean Time’ etc.) defined by its longitude relative to Greenwich.

But railways were becoming A Thing in the second half of the century and needed harmonisation.
Read 5 tweets
26 Mar
Ireland has today made the final repayment on the £3.23bn bilateral loan offered by the UK as part of the EU-IMF bailout package in 2010.

Similar bilateral loans from Denmark and Sweden were refinanced and repaid early, which was not pursued in UK case because of a break clause.
This now Ireland has now fully repaid all three bilateral loans, and all of its IMF funding, out of the bailout loans.

About €41bn (out of €67.5bn) is still owed to two EU bailout funds.
The last of those €41bn in loans is currently scheduled to be repaid sometime between 2041 and 2045.

Separately about €7bn in bonds relating to the liquidation of Anglo Irish Bank are due for repayment in 2051-53, but will likely be refinanced elsewhere this year or next.
Read 4 tweets

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