CONSTRUCTION WORKERS HAVE the lowest Covid vaccine uptake in the country, new stats released from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have shown.

Data released by the stats body found that just 75% of construction workers have had their jabs compared to the national average of 84%.

The CSO found that women in work are more likely to be vaccinated than the rest of the population.

Those working in public administration and the defence sector were found to have the highest uptake with 93% of people receiving the shots.

The CSO also found that there was a considerable drop in vaccine uptake with people from certain countries.

For example, the data showed that people from EU14-27 countries who live in Ireland have relatively low levels of vaccination.

The EU 14-27 countries are the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia.

The study found that just 39% of working men and 49% of working women from these countries had at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

The stats come with a warning, however.

The CSO warned that it is using new methods which are under development and data sources which may be incomplete.

To date, 90% of people over 12 across the country have been vaccinated. A booster campaign is now underway with more than 800,000 people aged over 60 set to get another jab from next week.

Speaking to reporters in UCD this afternoon, the Taoiseach said targeted adverts are being devised to appeal to cohorts that have yet to get vaccinated.

These adverts will be in various in different languages, he said, adding that some countries in Europe have a higher level of resistance against vaccines. He said this is for various historic reasons, such as the relationship the people might have had with the State over the decades.

Specific targeted vaccine information will now be aimed at different communities so as to increase the uptake, he said. 

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar also spoke today about the government’s plan to have a dedicated campaign on vaccinations to reach out to communities who do not speak English.

Speaking in Mullingar today, he said there are some groups where uptake has been “pretty low”.

He said this could be for various reasons such as not getting information in their own language, as well as possibly relying on information from the media in their own country, where the vaccine uptake might be quite low, he explained.

A dedicated campaign in other languages would be a “good idea”, said Varadkar.

With reporting by Christina Finn