Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am also a father of young children, as are many other Members. To outline how the system works, the primary childhood immunisation scheme was amended in 2016 to include the introduction to the meningitis B vaccine for all babies born on or after 1 October of that year. This change to the immunisation scheme took effect from 1 December 2016. The three doses of the vaccine are administered to children when they reach the ages of two months, four months and 12 months, respectively. Meningitis B disease is most common in babies under the age of one year, and the timing of the administration of the vaccine under the immunisation programme is provided on this basis. All vaccines administered through the primary childhood immunisation scheme are provided free of charge.

There are no plans to introduce a catch-up programme for older children at this stage, which is what the Deputy inquired about. Ireland is the second country in Europe to make the vaccine available free of charge as part of its national immunisation programme. It is important to reassure parents that to our knowledge no deaths that can be attributed to meningitis B have occurred. The Deputy has also confirmed this and he is not suggesting otherwise. However, parents are asking the question and it is important to clarify matters for them.

Thenational immunisation advisory committee makes recommendations for at-risk groups but not all of these are included in the current immunisation scheme. That committee's recommendations are based on the epidemiology of the relevant vaccine-preventable disease in Ireland, as determined by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and international best practice in immunisation. In plain English, this means that we are proceeding with caution and taking the advice of medical experts and the committee in charge of making recommendations to Government in this area. If we felt that extending the scheme was the right thing to do for healthcare, as the Deputy suggests, that is what we would do but that is not the recommendation at this stage.

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