Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Like my Labour Party colleagues, I fully support this important Fine Gael motion, which will be a test of every Government Member. From a political perspective, the decision is curious. I am glad the Minister is present and I hope she will respond to a few questions regarding various issues surrounding this matter.

Cancer scares all of us. It poses a huge challenge for the health services and the most frightening aspect of the disease is its random nature. While families have predispositions to cancer and so on because of lifestyle, a significant element of randomness is involved in cancer striking. Few types of cancer can be prevented. Advice can be provided regarding lifestyle such as not smoking and being careful about drinking and food consumption, which can reduce a person's chances of contracting the disease, but no vaccine is available to substantially reduce one's chances of developing most forms of cancer except cervical cancer. That is why the vaccine represents a significant breakthrough in health care and preventative medicine, which is severely under-developed in this State.

For that reason, HIQA recommended earlier this year that the HPV be introduced for 12 year olds. When the Minister considered all aspects of the programme and decided to go with it, everybody warmly welcomed the decision because it was looked on as a good step in developing preventative measures for cervical cancer and it was clearly established that investment by Government in such a vaccination programme would yield dividends in terms of lives saved. That is why from a human, economic and health perspective it was a no brainer. It made absolute sense to introduce this new vaccine. The number of lives that would be saved by its introduction could be identified. In September the Minister decided to go along with it and announced the programme, which was welcomed by everybody.

The Minister's announcement of the U-turn last week came as a bolt from the blue. I cannot understand why this is the case. She is an intelligent, thoughtful and considerate person and it does not make sense that if a vaccine is available to save lives and she announced that she intended to introduce it, that she would do a U-turn on it for the sake of less than €10 million. We have often dealt with issues in the past where there was an emergency and money had to be found. Irrespective of the difficulties within the economy, it could always be found, especially when a small amount was involved. There would be no difficulty in finding less than €10 million, either from the health budget or across various Departments, and it does not make sense for the Minister to say to us that the money could not be found. The only conclusion I can come to is that the Minister's Cabinet colleagues are hanging her out to dry if they are refusing to provide that €10 million. This does not make sense on any front, other than that it is a political manoeuvre on the part of her Cabinet colleagues.

There are umpteen ways in which the money can be found. Today, my party leader, Deputy Gilmore, made the point that there is agreement across the House on the part of every Member that this vaccine programme should be introduced. There is agreement that the sum involved, less than €10 million, is minute in the context of the budget generally. There is agreement that if people sat down and put their heads together they could find that €10 million today, if there was a political will to do so. The offer was made that the other health spokespersons would work with the Minister to identify where the money could be raised. I cannot understand why the Minister will not accept that offer. It is up to her backbenchers tonight to apply maximum pressure and to ensure that she makes the U-turn that everybody so badly wants her to do.

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