Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I consider this a very important issue in light of the World Health Organization's warning last week about the drop in MMR vaccination rates across Europe and large outbreaks of measles happening across the Continent. The greatest numbers are being seen in Italy and Romania. In light of Brexit, it is important to point out that viruses are not in any way aware of borders. It is important we have good vaccination policy in this country.

There is a responsibility on us as elected members to dispel some of the myths that are out there. We are what has been described as a post-knowledge economy. There is much information available to us but we are seeing the work of someone on Wikipedia having the same status as information and science from a reputable agency. There is a rise in populism and emerging mistrust of scientific facts. We have excellent research in Ireland and across Europe. It is worth noting that a significant amount of taxpayers' money is spent in this country and in Europe on scientific research. There seems to be an issue with disseminating the information from the scientific and research field to the public. It is our duty as elected representatives as well as that of those in the Department of Health to try to get the message out.

It is funny to hear of ridiculous studies in some publications that outline the positive effects of red wine, chocolate or sex on one's longevity when real scientific facts and strong scientific data that have been peer reviewed and assessed as being fact seem to be lost. Vaccinations prevent many diseases. Notably, these days the issues surround the MMR vaccine, which I am referring to specifically today, as well as other vaccines such as the human papillomavirus, HPV, vaccine. On measles, we need approximately 95% coverage to get what is called herd immunity. If we start to drop below that level, we will get measles outbreaks. We spend much time in this Chamber discussing issues such as waiting lists and hospital bed waits but, if we have a measles outbreak in Ireland, we will have something far more serious than capacity in our health service on our hands. Anyone who was around when measles were around knows that it can cause deafness, blindness and death. It is a very serious illness. Over the passage of time, sometimes people forget how serious are these issues.

Back in the day, in 1796, which was 220 years ago, Edward Jenner took from cattle the cowpox vaccine and started to give it to humans. This was deemed heresy and there were cartoons published at the time depicting people with animal heads. In my view, we are kind of heading back to that situation, so it is important that we as elected representatives and the Department do not lionise ignorance or applaud conspiracy theories that would do anything to harm public health.

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