Dr. Kevin Kelleher:

As my identifying label has fallen, I should clarify to Deputy Naughten that I am from the HSE and not from the Department of Health. I totally agree and have always stated that there should be a vaccine damage scheme in place in Ireland. It is absolutely essential to the provision of an immunisation programme. I have no doubts whatsoever about that and have said so repeatedly. As the Deputy is aware, I made this point ten years ago and repeat that it is an absolutely essential part of any immunisation programme to provide that sort of thing.

Most of our vaccines are now incredibly safe and most of the history is there. I only came to the country in 1995, but I was involved in the UK prior to that and we were probably not dissimilar. Historically, we may not have dealt with people as well as we should have done. I hope we are now dealing much better with people who have got problems. Historically, some of our vaccines were very problematic. The vaccine we had for smallpox did not just cause people problems, it also had a mortality rate.