Firefighter, paramedic and Workers’ Party representative David Gardiner has accused the irish Daily Mail of insulting frontline workers, following an article implying that Dublin paramedics jumped the queue for the COVID-19 vaccine, while also criticising the government for the roll-out.

Gardiner said:

“The Irish Daily Mail article portraying Dublin Fire Brigade paramedics as jumping the queue for COVID-19 vaccinations is a desperate attempt at dividing frontline workers.”

“Some of us had our scheduled vaccinations cancelled following the government’s failure to secure enough supply, and we are still awaiting confirmation of when these will be delivered. We’ve sought to have them rescheduled as soon as possible by contacting the relevant Minister, the HSE and frankly anybody else relevant who will listen.”

“We have over 900 trained paramedics who could even administer these vaccines to our staff themselves if supplied to us, freeing up HSE staff to roll out the vaccine to others.”

“We are frontline health workers waiting our turn for the vaccine like anybody else. This was meant to be our turn, and yet the government failed to supply. We want this remedied as soon as possible so we can continue carrying out our frontline duties.

“The Irish Daily Mail accusation of this being “jabs for the boys” is false and highly insulting to us as frontline workers, and a typical attempt by the right-wing media to divide workers.”