Dr. Ronan Glynn:

There is an opportunity for girls who missed out in previous years as the HSE will be running mop-up clinics. A teenage girl who has gone beyond first year and had access to the programme in previous years but for whatever reason, did not avail of it can still avail of it. The introduction of the new vaccine this year for girls and boys was based on a recommendation from HIQA, which performed a health technology assessment. Based on its advice and that of the national immunisation advisory committee, which is the source of the advice upon which we base our decisions, a decision was taken with the introduction of the new vaccine not to introduce a catch-up programme for boys. However, that will depend on uptake over the coming years of the vaccine so that is something the national immunisation advisory committee will keep under review and is, therefore, something we in the Department would keep under review over time as well.