Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the fact that 9,600 children are on a waiting list for the BCG vaccination in the Cork area. Over the past two years there has been a rise in TB notifications in the HSE south region with 96 cases notified in 2006 and 110 cases in 2007 — the highest level of incidence in the country — and yesterday a new case of TB was confirmed at one of the largest schools in Cork city. Cork is the only county where the BCG vaccination, which inoculates against TB, is not routinely administered to newborns and, despite assurances that additional clinics would be set up to deal with the backlog, only 30 children are being vaccinated each week, which is less than the number of children born at the Cork University Maternity Hospital during the same period and therefore the waiting list continues to grow. I request a debate on this issue.

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