“If it is unreasonable to expect people in rural Connemara to travel to Ballybrit to get their Covid vaccines, it is doubly so for residents of the Aran Islands.”
This is the view of Sinn Féin Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell, who has written to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, and the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, calling for vaccines to be administered locally on the three Aran Islands.
Currently there are more than 750 on Inis Mór, c300 people on Inis Oírr and 200 on Inis Meáin. It has been estimated that 2,000 people visited Inis Oírr the first weekend that the hospitality sector reopened.
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While all members of the older and medically vulnerable sections of the Aran population received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine from the local GP who serves both Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin, the rest of the population is expected to wait for their age group and attend the vaccination centre in Ballybrit.
Dep Farrell [pictured above] said this is unreasonable, especially when Minister Donnelly agreed that local provisions should be made for people in rural Connemara.
“The travel time from Inis Oírr or Inis Meáin to Ballybrit is double that from many parts of Connemara and includes a ferry or plane journey with a limited schedule,” said Dep Farrell. “If it is unreasonable to expect people in rural parts of Connemara to travel, it is doubly so for residents of the Aran Islands.”
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According to Dep Farrell, the GP who serves the Islands said if provided with sufficient doses for the full populations, it would be feasible for him to administer them all in accordance with vaccine storage requirements.
She said it would be “common sense” to vaccinate the entire island population at the same time, “to protect them as a community unit which regularly accommodates high numbers of visitors from outside the community”.
