Ministers ‘petrified’ of public reaction if they were to jump vaccination queue
GOVERNMENT ministers are extremely reluctant to discuss when they will be vaccinated.
While many high-profile political figures worldwide have been inoculated in recent weeks – partly to build public confidence in Covid-19 vaccines – there is still no clarity on when ministers here can expect their vaccinations.
“They are totally petrified,” says one Government insider.
“They are very nervous about it.”
The fear among ministers and their officials is that the sight of them being vaccinated when some healthcare workers and nursing home residents are still waiting would torpedo public support for the national effort to beat Covid-19.
When the Irish Independent asked a number of Cabinet ministers last week when they expected to get their jabs, the responses ranged from one who said, “I thought we’d be last”, to another who remarked, “If they could vaccinate nurses and doctors, that would be a good start.”
Health Minister Stephen
Donnelly has stated publicly he is in cohort 13 for vaccination – everyone aged between 18 and 54 – which means he could be waiting until late into the summer.
However, a senior Coalition figure said they suspected ministers would be in cohort six, which includes key workers. The groups of workers in this category have yet to be finalised, but is likely to include gardaí and other frontline workers.
Vaccination of this cohort is unlikely to begin until April or May.
There have been no formal discussions between officials in the Department of Health
If Martin is to visit the White House next month, it’s likely he’ll need a jab
and the Department of the Taoiseach about vaccinating ministers and key officials.
But the issue is coming to a head now because, as the Irish Independent reported yesterday, if Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to visit the White House for St Patrick’s Day next month, it is likely he will require a vaccination.
President Biden and hundreds of staff who work with him are all vaccinated, as are many senior US politicians no matter their age. There is some, but not a lot, of public debate in the US about this.
US officials are understood to be perplexed at the debate emerging in Ireland, where there appears to be the potential for a public backlash if Mr Martin is vaccinated and the trip goes ahead.
There have been calls for Mr Martin to avoid the trip this year in solidarity with all of us who are being told to stay at home – with Sinn Féin, notwithstanding its sometimes questionable approach to public-health restrictions, leading the charge.
Sinn Féin TDs point to the North’s First and Deputy First Ministers deciding to forgo their annual trip to the US.
But there is one crucial difference in that neither would be afforded a bilateral meeting with the US President in the
Oval Office, as the Taoiseach would. This sort of engagement is important to furthering Ireland’s international agenda on several fronts, not least the plight of Irish people living illegally in the US. This shouldn’t be dismissed just because of concerns about the optics of Mr Martin travelling to the US and being vaccinated before doing so.
In fact, he and the entire Cabinet should get their jabs as soon as possible to put an end to an increasingly pointless debate. Whether you support it or not, the work ministers do and the decisions they take are essential to the State’s pandemic response.