MICHEAL MARTIN has defended Ireland’s slow vaccine rolling out during a fiery debate in the Dail telling his critics “There’s no magic tree out there that we can pick vaccines off.”
The Taoiseach’s remarks came in response to criticism from across from TDs across the House who called on the Government to step up its efforts.
Aontu leader Peadar Toibin compared Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to “Comical Ali” the former Minister in Iraq who became a figure of ridicule after repeatedly claiming they were winning the war despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Deputy Toibin said: “Night after night the people of Ireland are being subjected to Stephen Donnelly like Comical Ali in front of them on the screens saying that the administration of the vaccine is going fine.
"Everybody knows it’s not. It’s a billion-euro-a-month unmitigated disaster that’s happening in this country.”
The comments sparked a furious response from Martin who called on Toibin to withdraw his remarks and demanded TDs stop “blackguarding" the government on the vaccine rollout.
He said: “I would like to say to Deputy Toibin that you should withdraw that remark. It’s completely unfounded and the level is just not warranted.
“It’s not proportionate, it’s not balanced and it’s doing a disservice. The vaccination programme in this country is working.”
When several TDs attemped to interject, the Taoiseach fired back: “Ah, will you come off it please and just allow me. Stop the blackguarding on this and your attempts.”
He added that “95 per cent of everything that comes into the country is being injected within the week”.
“In terms of the global supply, there are three major continents that are manufacturing — China, Europe and the US,” Martin said.
“There’s no magic tree out there that we can pick vaccines off. That’s an illusion.
“I spoke to the UK Prime Minister. We talked about vaccines. He volunteered to me that he would love to help Ireland but his first priority is to get his entire people vaccinated.”
The Taoiseach also revealed he enquired about buying spare AstraZeneca jabs from Germany but was told they were needed.
Micheal-MartinIt came on a day when the Health Minister also revealed how they had tried and failed to buy extra jabs from AstraZeneca.
Ireland hit 500,000 vaccinations last weekend. A week earlier the UK hit 200,000 million with over 500,000 of those coming in Northern Ireland.
Despite this the government says it remains on track to distribute 1.1million doses in April, 1.25million jabs in May and a further 1.68million in June.
And Tanaiste Leo Varadkar remains confident the delays faced so far will not dent Ireland’s plans for the gradual reopening of society.
He told RTE: “What we made very clear in the plan that we published a few weeks ago is that we would review the situation in the run up to April 5.
“And we said that the only kind of restrictions that we could see being eased in April would be construction, the 5km rule and allowing more activities outdoors, and that remains the case.
“Even if the number of vaccines is slightly behind schedule, we’re making very good progress in terms of suppressing the virus.”
Ireland’s plans have also received a significant boost with the news that the European Commission has reached a deal with Pfizer BioNTech to secure an extra four million vaccine doses.
That equates to around 46,500 extra vaccinations in Ireland by the end of the month.
The EC has also struck a deal to help tackle “aggressive variants” of the virus.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen texted the Taoiseach today morning to say that Ireland would be getting 46,500 extra Pfizer doses by the end of the month as part of the new deal.
The Commission said it had secured the deal to help tackle “aggressive variants” that were creating Covid hotspots in the EU.
