Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The decision that we made was not to introduce the vaccine in 2009. I have heard phrases like "scrapped", "changed her mind", "U-turn" and all the rest. When I made the announcement in August, following the advisory group report and the report from HIQA, I made it in good faith. Following the advice given to me, I said that this vaccine was a good thing and should be introduced on the basis of an 80% up-take. There are two companies that make the vaccine and I wanted to make sure we got the most cost-effective version. However, things changed rapidly and there was no anticipation in August that we would have a budget on 14 October. Tax receipts deteriorated rapidly during the month of September. Small and all as the money may seem, the reality is that it is not possible to begin this programme in 2009.

A team of nurses were recruited to increase the take-up of the MMR vaccine. The childhood immunisation programme next year will cost €60 million. When the nurses have finished that programme, they will be available to introduce this vaccine. It was never the intention that it would be done through general practice, in the way pap tests are done. The intention was to do this through an immunisation programme using a team of nurses to carry it out. I wanted to do it in primary schools next year. It would be easier to do it this way, because we already have immunisation programmes under way in primary schools. We would know the children and would be able to obtain permission from their parents. We may now have to do it in secondary school. It is slightly less expensive to do it this way, although not by a huge margin.

There are many people in Ireland who do not realise that screening in a country that does not have it is far more important in the short term than a preventative measure that will take effect in 15 or 20 years. We do not have a good record on cervical cancer when compared with other European countries. The reason is our lack of a national screening programme. The programme is quality assured, and this was the most important criterion used in selecting the people to do the cytology. I was asked to delay that decision so we could reflect on it further. However, it is working incredibly well. About 1,500 smears are being taken every day and 79,000 kits were issued in October alone to doctors, Well Woman clinics and other involved parties.

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