Dr. Colm Henry:

I will try to be as quick as possible with the Deputy's time. On the first issue, it must be borne in mind that in the UK a decision was made to extend the interval between the first and second doses of the vaccine and that may have informed any decision made to administer a booster dose. In addition, HIQA has surveyed the question of immunity, whether natural or vaccine-induced, and there is evidence of persistent antibodies up to six months, with some waning thereafter. The question of a booster dose is one that is outstanding for all countries internationally and it has not been answered yet. We may well be looking at annual booster doses, depending on what the evidence shows in time.

The Deputy is right that there is not a single national disease registry for the whole range of conditions described by NIAC in its letter. It is easier to identify patients with certain conditions. For example, the national renal office has a good idea of the number of people on dialysis, those who have received organ transplantation and those in the end stages of renal failure through the network of nephrologists. Similarly, in the area of cancer the oncology network will have a fairly good idea of the types of patients described in the NIAC document. However, for other conditions there is no such registry and that will require us to mine into the information in hospitals and general practices.