Covid-19: Cabinet considers vaccine plan amid Nphet warning

Good morning,

It may have felt like the longest year since time immemorial, but 2020 is soon to draw to a close with only two weeks of parliamentary business left.

Worry not, the political establishment might have saved the best for last. A lot of the debate this week will zero in on how we will get access to Covid-19 vaccines, and when. While a Brexit deadline appears to have been unofficially set for tomorrow, and the vast majority of people accept how serious the situation could become, a lot of people just want to know when they can hope to escape a world so tightly bound by coronavirus laws.

There are two big Covid-19 items on the agenda this week. The first is a vital plan for the rollout of vaccines that will be brought to Cabinet this morning.

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The second is a report from a special vaccine taskforce that Taoiseach Micheál Martin expects to receive by the end of this week.

As my colleagues Jack Horgan-Jones, Conor Gallagher and Paul Cullen report today, a plan has been drawn up by the Department of Health and the National Immunisation Advisory Committee – and incidentally, approved by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) – that will be brought to Cabinet today by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.

As part of that plan, over-70s could be among the first groups to be given Covid-19 vaccinations, as would long-term-care residents and frontline healthcare workers.

Of that over-70 group, the plan is to immunise this category in phases – firstly, the over-85s, followed by those aged 80-84, then 75-79-year-olds and finally those between 70 and 74.

Read the details of what will go before Cabinet here.

Many have also been wondering what we might be facing after Christmas, and Paul Cullen has the latest warnings from Nphet here.

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan has said it is “more likely than not” that Ireland will be experiencing “challenging” levels of Covid-19 transmission in January.

He also said he was “surprised” by the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) guidance last week that stated air travel was not a high-risk activity.

Mr Holohan said Nphet does not agreed with this advice and has made its views known within the ECDC. Nphet’s advice is still that people avoid non-essential travel this Christmas. Tens of thousands are expected to fly home in the coming weeks, and the knock-on effect of this will surely become a bigger political and public health issue down the line.

Brexit: Crunch time at last?

It appears an unofficial final deadline has been laid down for this week for a post-Brexit trade deal to be agreed by the European Union and United Kingdom.

British prime minister Boris Johnson will go to Brussels in the coming days in an attempt to bridge significant differences in Brexit talks over the so-called level playing field, governance and fisheries issues.

As our Europe Correspondent Naomi O'Leary reports here, the mood music around negotiations is poor. Mr Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement on Monday that sealing a new trade deal was currently impossible "due to remaining differences on critical issues".

It is hard to overstate how disruptive a no-deal scenario would be, but it would have a massive impact on importers and exporters alike. It would also represent a disastrous failing of politics and would have long-term implications that are hard to fully quantify.

At a media doorstep in Cork yesterday the Taoiseach said the situation is “serious and the issues are ones which have bedevilled the process from the beginning both in terms of the level playing field, fisheries and of course the dispute-resolution mechanism to deal with the level playing field issues”.

He said “overall, it is in the interests of all concerned that a proper trade deal is agreed. Our respective economies across Europe and the UK would suffer – unnecessarily in my view – in the event of a no deal.”

Follow irishtimes.com for live updates throughout the day.

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Playbook

Dáil

As per usual on a Tuesday afternoon, Leaders’ Questions kicks off at 2pm. We might then expect the customary row about what the business of the week should be. There are a number of motions due to be taken before questions to the Taoiseach just after 3pm and then parliamentary questions for Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

Topical issues will be taken at 9.29pm, and the Dáil is due to adjourn shortly before 11pm. Read the full schedule here.

Seanad

The big issues up today in the Seanad include the Brexit omnibus Bill as well as the Finance Bill and statements on combating domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Here is the full schedule.

Committees

No less than 13 committees have business today. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight will hear from representatives of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council at 11am. The Committee on Climate Action will meet in private at the same time. The Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine has a hearing scheduled on Brexit and its impact on the agri-food industry.

Read what the rest of the committees will be considering here.