Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State has issued a tender for the vaccines. There has been the usual delay of 25 days, although it might have been 52 days had it been a normal tendering process. He has not, therefore, taken ownership of even one of the vaccines yet. That is the problem. A great deal of misleading information has been given. The long story the Minister of State told leading up to this gives a good indication of what is happening.

The Health Service Executive had no intention of purchasing any of these vaccines in 2005 because of a lack of funding. The Minister of State's chronology explains what went wrong. There was a public outcry before 20 September and then suddenly the HSE announced it would get the vaccines as soon as possible. Even up to ten days before that it had no intention of doing so. I know because I was on a radio interview with the same person from the HSE who said the executive did not have the resources for that year. When the publicity built up the resources suddenly became available. That is the truth.

The nub of the question is when the Minister of State will take delivery of the vaccines. Protracted negotiations have meant there are no vaccines to give to children who are most at risk from the disease this winter. They need a booster in their second year. The history of what happened is not important. We just need to get the vaccines and start vaccinating children, especially those who are most vulnerable in this winter season.

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