Kelly calls for a dedicated vaccine Minister

Photo © Tipp FM

Labour leader Alan Kelly is calling on the Taoiseach to appoint one person to take control of the vaccine rollout, and similar issues.

The Tipperary TD’s comments come as the Department of Health stated that 94,000 people in Ireland have received a Covid-19 vaccine so far, including 71,000 for frontline healthcare workers.

140,000 vaccines should be administered here by this Sunday, while people will also start receiving their second dose of the vaccine this week.

Alan Kelly says the job of overseeing vaccinations shouldn’t be entirely left to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

“Someone who is going to be broader than just the health aspect of it – the whole logistics, the legal aspects of it, the rollout – the rules by which we live because of the situation that we’ll be in.”

“So in other words travel, the whole aspect in relation to events, what you can and can’t do as regards this. Something we’ve never had to deal with before.”

“One person I believe – for the sake of a year or a year and a half – should be in charge of all of this.”