Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has defended the country’s vaccine rollout saying that everything was being done to source vaccines.
When asked about the possibility of Ireland independently seeking vaccines as other European countries had done, the Minister told RTÉ radio’s News at One that the State had made contact directly with pharmaceutical companies around the world, but they had said they were facing “huge” demand.
The Government would continue to do everything they could to source vaccines, he said, but he thought the best opportunity was working through the European Union.
Frustration
Mr Donohoe said he understood the public's frustration with the delays. Over 513,000 doses had been administered to date and there would be much more available in Quarter Two, he said.
“As quickly as we have them in the country, we will vaccinate.
“We are using all we have. We worked hard to get as much additional vaccine as we could.”
On the issue of the Davy bonds controversy, the Minister said that the Central bank and his department had begun work on the issue in 2017. The behaviour of Davy had been “outrageous” and had fallen far below the standards expected of the sector.
When asked about sanctions for the ‘Davy 16’, Mr Donohoe said that was a matter for the regulator. It was not appropriate for him to indicate what action should be taken against individuals, he said.
Mr Donohoe said he was working to bring new legislation (SEAR) and he hoped the heads of Bill would be ready before the summer. Even if the SEAR legislation had been in place in 2017, it would not have made a difference to the Davy controversy, he said, as legislation was not retrospective and the event had occurred in 2014.
Labour’s Finance spokesperson Ged Nash said that the Central Bank investigation had taken too long, and they had an obligation to share information about what had happened with An Garda Siochana. The Central Bank also needed to confirm if there were any similar investigations ongoing into other transactions or other financial institutions.
