Send surplus jabs to Ireland, Boris urged

BORIS JOHNSON is facing mounting calls to come to the aid of our Irish Republic ‘cousins’ and donate surplus Covid vaccines to Dublin.

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster said yesterday that ‘we can help our neighbours in the Republic’ to escape the EU jabs crisis by offering them spare UK supplies.

Mrs Foster appeared to make the offer conditional on Dublin recognising that the post-Brexit settlement for Northern Ireland was ‘unworkable’.

But she said she ‘ absolutely’ thought the UK could help, adding: ‘Because of their membership of the EU, they have not been able to access the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine in the way, I am sure, they would have liked to if they had been a sovereign country.’ Several Tory MPs have also called for London to help Dublin, including Andrew Bridgen who said: ‘We should just come to the aid of our Irish cousins – if the EU will let us, that is.’

Government sources confirmed that No 10 is considering offering the Republic vaccines when the UK has a surplus. However, this is not expected to be until May because supplies here are ‘very tight’.

Ireland, with its vaccination rate of three per cent, has fared better than many other EU countries, which are now facing the prospect of severe shortages.

But it still lags way behind Northern Ireland’s 10.4 per cent rate and the UK’s nearly 12 per cent.

Ireland has ordered 3.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab but faces potential delays to delivery after the pharmaceutical giant warned the EU that initial supplies would be lower than anticipated.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Mrs Foster tore into Brussels for using emergency powers contained in the Brexit withdrawal agreement to stop Northern Ireland being used as a ‘back door’ for scarce Covid vaccines being exported to the UK.

Neale Richmond, European affairs spokesman for Ireland’s Fine Gael party, said the vaccine offer was ‘very generous’ but ‘unlikely to be realised’ because Ireland was part of the European vaccine roll-out.