Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 June 2021
22. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way his Department plans to address the concerns articulated by employers and trade unions regarding the rights and responsibilities for employers relating to unvaccinated staff to keep their workplaces and customers safe particularly in smaller enterprises. [30031/21]
View answerI want to firstly acknowledge that Ireland is in the recovery phase of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccination roll-out is essential to this recovery and to the re-opening of society and the economy. Our vaccination programme is very successful to-date with over 2.5million doses administered at this point. As stated at the launch of the recently revised Work Safely Protocol, vaccine hesitancy has not yet emerged as a problem in Ireland.
The Work Safely Protocol sets out guidance for employers around vaccinations, this is contained in section D14 of the Protocol. Fundamentally, the decision to get a vaccination against COVID-19 is voluntary and workers will therefore make their own individual decisions in this regard. There are no plans to make vaccinations mandatory in Ireland. However, employers working together with their workers and their representatives, may wish to provide advice and information on the vaccination programme, to ensure that any worker with a hesitancy has the necessary information to make an informed decision. Communication between employers and employees will be important to identify any potential problems. For example, an employer might decide that an employee who is not vaccinated should not be assigned a customer facing role and that, in these circumstances, they should be redeployed with agreement to another position within the organisation.
The vast majority of employers and employees are anxious to get back to work and appreciate that having a significant cohort of the population vaccinated is a positive development for the post pandemic recovery.
