Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

With regard to Deputy Reilly's point about Boston or Berlin, the Swedish Government has not introduced this vaccine and I do not believe it could be put into the Boston schools of economics or politics. Several other Ministries have not done so either, for the many reasons we face here. Clinical choices must be made based on the best clinical advice when there is public money to spend.

Concerning Deputy O'Sullivan's point about cost and take-up, I said earlier that I accepted the health technology assessment which advised that the introduction of this vaccine in Ireland would be a good thing. We want to have it as quickly as possible and I had hoped to introduce it for the school year beginning in September 2009, subject to 80% of parents agreeing that their daughters should receive the vaccine, and that it be cost-effective. That cannot happen next September but I hope it can happen soon thereafter.

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