Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Connell for her support on public health in general and her advocacy in this regard. We have made really good progress on vaccination together as an Oireachtas. The HSE has shown incredible leadership in this area. It shows how when the health service really puts its mind to something, we can make progress. When we engage with others outside our initial health family, our friend, the late Laura Brennan, obviously being a key example of that, but also lots of other organisations and people, we can see the energy and the movement that creates. We launched the Vaccine Alliance on 10 September. I am very excited about this. We specifically put Science Foundation Ireland on it for that very reason. It is doing its scoping exercise on the work it should do now. They have Barnardos, USI, lots of doctors, parents and patient advocates. It is a really good mix. David Robert Grimes, whom the Deputy knows, is a really powerful advocate and is on that group. It is to come back to us with what it thinks we should do.

One of the issues in any public awareness campaign, as the Deputy will know, is the need to target certain groups. When we look at vaccinations and pseudoscience, the impact is not uniform across all of us. We need to do a little bit of work in terms of what works for different parts of society. The short answer is that we have major plans for pushing back on misinformation regarding vaccines. The point the Deputy is making at to how we broaden that out into other issues is a good one and I will reflect on that.

On the HPV vaccine, I am delighted we got this done and that it is rolling out. I am hearing really good things back in terms of uptake rates. I am in the realm of anecdote at the moment but am hearing from GPs and others that they are seeing a lot of demand. They are seeing parents coming in asking for vaccines for their older sons. The medical advice available to me currently is not to do that but we did the catch-up programme for girls and we still have it so I am keeping it under active review. There is not a current proposal for it. Obviously people can get it but have to pay for it after first year. We will keep it under review.