Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I want to Minister to explain the breakdown that results in the figure of 12,000 girls per year at a cost of €600 each. I understand from a radio broadcast this morning that this is where the figure of €15 million is derived. The figure simply does not stand up to analysis. Although we have the tables from the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, I rang a family planning clinic before I entered the House and was told it is €115 per dose plus 21% VAT and that three doses are required. This amounts to approximately €400. If doctors are being paid a full fee, depending on the location, the cost of each visit amounts to between €50 and €60. Are my statistics correct or not?

The HIQA tables indicate a cost of €390 for three shots of vaccine under a school-administered programme. I presume there is no VAT because the service is State provided. The doctor service costs €475. The Minister delayed the programme to have a cost-benefit analysis carried out. Why does she accept that the vaccine cost in Ireland should be exorbitant? This is Bush economics and a case of the private corporations commanding premium prices for public products because of the Minister's policy of privatising the health services. I am thankful the sun is setting on Bush economics in the United States and hope it is doing so here. How can Deputy Harney, who has been Minister for a significant period, stand over the economics of these costs? If she is seriously contemplating that family doctors or individual health clinics should charge the fees I mentioned, it is a resigning issue. The programme can be administered by nurse practitioners.

Does the Minister recall that one of her predecessors, Dr. Noel Browne, was able to eliminate TB at a time when the country did not have tuppence? Although our circumstances are not as favourable as they were, we are still very rich and cannot offer the comfort of positive programmes. In Africa, countries with very few resources have universal immunisation programmes for children in respect of a range of conditions. Children in Cork and other areas are not able to receive ordinary immunisation after birth because the system the Minister oversees is fundamentally broken. She should provide a breakdown of the figures. If she cannot do so now, will she do so later in tabular form?

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