BRENDAN GLEESON has called on teachers, supermarket workers and other frontline staff to be given priority in Ireland’s ongoing vaccine rollout.
Speaking on a special St Patrick’s Day edition of the Late Late Show, the In Bruges actor urged the public to “hang in for another couple of months” at which point he believes “things will change utterly".
He did, however, voice his belief that certain professions should be given priority when it comes to getting one of the potentially life-saving jabs.
Gleeson said: "I do think teachers should be bumped up the list, I would be prepared to wait, no problem to let the teachers have their stuff first.
"I think they are on the frontline... they should be bumped up the list.
"And I think people who serve in supermarkets at the tills should be up the list, anybody who is doing essential the stuff in the everyday should be getting it, anybody who has to come in touch with the people and the public.
"I think people are now starting to realise how essential everybody is."
In the meantime, he urged the public to continue supporting one another through the crisis with “small kindnesses” the he believes will help lift spirits.
"In terms of mental health, if people can continue with small kindnesses in as much as they can or remember to ring somebody who might need it and not slam the phone down on somebody who rings...that is what is will get us through it."
He also expressed sympathy for young people stuck indoors away from friends due to Covid-19 during a formative time in their lives
Gleeson said: "I think it's rotten for young people, it gets me down a little when there's a little bit of youth bashing.
"It must be really awful to be 17 or 18 where all you want to do is get in touch with people, find new people, meet the opposite sex or whatever sex you are into and the whole idea of touching is completely off-limits.
"Actual just being able to breathe and smell the air with people, or if people who have fallen in love already are not seeing the person that they want to be with all the time, it's catastrophic at that age, it's horrible."
See More: Brendan Gleeson, Film, Teaching, Television, Vaccine
