Dr. Kevin Kelleher:

That was back in the 1960s or 1970s in this country. It had a mortality rate but things have changed dramatically. That is why some of the vaccines have changed and we have seen some of those things.

The most recent example is shown by a report that Dr. O'Flanagan has produced and which is in the public domain. When we used the H1N1 pandemic vaccine during the flu pandemic, it would appear that adverse reactions were associated with a very small number of people. The numbers at the moment appear to be around 30 to 40, although that could grow. Unfortunately, they developed a severe form of narcolepsy. We are providing as much support as possible to those people at the moment. We are paying for treatment and for them to visit non-public services where appropriate. We are giving them support in different ways. Where they request medical cards they are being given the discretionary medical cards. We are also giving other costs. We have been working with our colleagues in the Department of Education and Skills to provide educational support for them. Therefore we are clearly committed to trying to support such individuals. As the committee has heard, however, the vast majority of problems that happen with immunisation are minor.

Having said that, we have heard that some people get anaphylactic shock. It is uncommon but all our staff are regularly trained in how to deal with anaphylactic shock. All of those are now dealt with immediately by the staff. They are resuscitated immediately and looked after. We are careful about all these issues.

With regard to Deputy Ó Caoláin's question, we have tried to give as much support as possible to the people who seem to have been affected by the H1N1 vaccine. I am not saying that we have done everything because that is never possible, but we have made every effort to try to help them. We have brought in colleagues from other Government Departments to support us as well. They have been very helpful.