Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy Harris, and myself I thank all those who contributed to the debate on this motion. I also thank Deputy Alan Kelly for bringing this very important motion to the floor. As a mother and grandparent I am very conscious of the fact that I have four daughters, four granddaughters and two grandsons. I want what every parent and grandparent wants, to make sure that their children and grandchildren get the best of what our health service can offer and that includes vaccination and everything else. I agree with Deputy O'Sullivan on what she said at the end of her contribution about it being so important that women and men avail of the services that are there, particularly the screening services for breast cancer and bowel cancer and even smear tests. As a mother and as somebody who has had most of the tests available to me I know how important it is to continue to make them available to people.

A number of issues were raised. I cannot comment on some of them because I do not have the reply in front of me. I will comment on two of them. Deputy Kelleher raised one issue. I remember that, at the time when Deputy Kelleher and myself were on the Joint Committee on Health, we met parents who said that their children had been affected by the vaccination. It was very emotional for everybody on the committee to listen to the stories that were told. All of us who are not medical professionals, GPs or otherwise in the business of health have to rely on what is being said by the professionals, who are the GPs, and on the scientific evidence.

Deputy MacSharry and Deputy Daly raised the issue of the clinical pathway care approach to the medical needs of this group. I have no further update on this but to say that the HSE is definitely working on it at present and as soon as some information becomes available to the offices of the Minister, Deputy Harris, and myself, it will become available to all the Deputies here.

I will continue on with some of the notes which I have been given. I know that the Minister, Deputy Harris, covered some of them in his opening statement but I will go back on some of them myself. Cervical cancer impacts the lives of almost 7,000 women in Ireland every year. In 2018 more than 90 Irish women will die from cervical cancer; a further 280 women will need intensive treatment, such as surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy; and another 6,500 women will need hospital treatment to remove precancerous changes in the cervix. Some 99% of cervical cancer is caused by persistent infection of certain high-risk types of human papilloma virus, HPV, which is acquired during sexual contact. HPV vaccination prevents this.

In September 2010 the HPV vaccination programme was introduced for all girls in first year of second level schools. In 2011 a catch-up programme commenced for all girls in second level school and this was completed in 2014. Gardasil is the vaccine used by the HSE in the schools immunisation programme. It provides protection against the two high-risk HPV types that cause 70% of cervical cancers and pre-cancers and the two HPV types that cause 90% of genital warts. In Ireland nearly quarter of a million girls have received the full vaccine course. However, uptake rates for the HPV vaccine peaked at 87% in 2014-15 and have dramatically fallen since then. The main focus of the programme is to increase HPV vaccination uptake rates in girls.

One of the most important things we can do is to provide accurate and credible information to enable parents to make a fully informed decision concerning HPV vaccination. The HPV vaccine information campaign helps parents access trusted sources of information. The initial evidence suggests that this campaign is having a positive effect with provisional figures showing uptake rates having increased by 11% to 62%. I concur with the many Deputies who have said that this increase is not enough. Many spoke about herd immunity. Until a few weeks ago I had never heard how important it is to reach 90% to ensure that people are covered. It is important that we, as public representatives here in the Dáil, do everything we can to promote that fact and to encourage parents to continue to have their children immunised.

I know that many parents have concerns, as did I when I was having my children vaccinated, but we depend on our GPs and the medical professionals around us at the time. We had an incident in my family in which one of my family members had a severe reaction to a vaccine but thankfully that family member has recovered and is now living a normal life. That does not always happen and I share the concerns which some parents raised at the Joint Committee on Health when I was on it.

7 o’clock

In recent years, increasing evidence has shown an association between HPV and other cancers found in both men and women. The evidence for a causative link between HPV and cancer has become stronger. The process to enable an informed decision concerning the extension of the current HPV immunisation programme to include boys, underpinned by objective and scientific evidence, is already under way. HIQA is undertaking a HTA, at the request of the Department of Health, on extending the national immunisation schedule to include HPV vaccination for boys. The HTA will establish the clinical basis and cost-effectiveness of providing the vaccine to boys. I hate to use the word "cost-effectiveness", but I understand things are already beginning to happen in this area and we must wait until the evidence is back. The Government is supportive of the intentions of the motion but, as has already been said, we await the completion of the HTA later this year, which is the appropriate way to approach this.

The HSE immunisation teams have started their second round of visits to secondary schools. I again encourage the parents of all eligible girls to ensure that their daughters receive this important vaccination. I thank all Deputies for the varied contributions they have made this evening. It is unfair of anyone to come into this Chamber and make - I will not say an accusation - a comment that we do not care as parents. I certainly care as a parent but I also care as a politician about what we put in place.

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