Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the comments of my party colleague, Deputy Brassil, who is a pharmacist and a qualified health professional. Indeed, I am very grateful to him for the advice he has given to me on this issue.

The State should be glad that parents are very concerned about a vaccine programme and want it to be made available to more children, given that have been several controversies around vaccines in recent years. Rather than being defensive, if not rude, the Minister for Health should be glad that people are looking for this vaccine.

He should be grateful that people are looking for vaccines against the disease.

As Deputy Brassil noted, the fears of the public were heightened, probably rightly, when a HSE public health doctor appeared on "Morning Ireland" last week and made the case that the recent increase, as described in the official release from the HSE, is a cause for concern. Parents were concerned, in many cases because their children had not received access to the vaccine. In the recommendation from the officials charged with making it, we were told the vaccine should not be provided to children born before 2016, but no reason has been given. Is it refused on grounds of safety, cost or efficacy, that is, whether it works? The evidence is that it does, and last week people were strongly urged by the HSE to take up the vaccine. Complaints were made that the rate of the uptake of the meningococcal vaccine among children has been suboptimal. I strongly encourage those who are able to get the vaccine to get it for their children if they have not done so because it is important. The people deserve an answer from the State about why many of their children cannot get the vaccine.

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