“It wasn’t a promise. It was heavily caveated”.
Stephen Donnelly has defended his prediction that every adult in Ireland would be offered by a vaccination by September of this year.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, the Minister for Health was asked whether it was “wise” to make these sort of promises, given how unpredictable Covid has been thus far.
He replied: “It wasn’t a promise. It was heavily caveated”, and said that September remains his prediction, despite recent setbacks.
“It wasn’t a promise, it was heavily caveated”
.@DonnellyStephen defends his projection that everyone will be vaccinated by September, saying it is broadly based on when vaccines are authorised and on the schedule of advanced purchases | More: https://t.co/3hPebuyxA5 pic.twitter.com/JpL4H5f6wM
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 27, 2021
This come as Donnelly projected that “every citizen” in Ireland would be offered a Covid vaccine by September, a claim that was made just six days ago.
Since then, Ireland was hit with a “real setback”, as reports emerged that all EU states will receive less AstraZeneca vaccines over the next month or so.
Speaking of these recent vaccine issues, he said that he feels the frustration of the public, saying: “The frustration is perfectly understandable. People are having the hardest year of their lives, for most people.
“We are getting the vaccines into the country as quickly as possible, and as soon as they come in, we are getting them into people’s arms.”
Donnelly said that he has not entirely dismissed a Zero Covid strategy, but that for now the vaccine remains the number one priority.
He said: “If we were having this conversation and there was no vaccine, we would be in a very dark place”.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
