Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this really important issue. She does so at a good time because this is going to be really important as we head into the winter. We are very closely watching what is happening in the southern hemisphere, where countries are now entering the winter flu season. We need to watch what happens there in order to inform what we do here. Everyone knows that the flu comes every winter. What many people probably do not know is that every year somewhere between 500 and 1,500 lives are lost or shortened as a consequence of the flu. It tends to hit particularly badly in nursing homes and residential settings. It affects the elderly and the ill particularly badly and has an impact on our hospitals. Part of the reason for overcrowding, which is a year-round phenomenon, getting much worse in the winter is the flu and other seasonal illnesses.

What we are planning for the winter of 2020-2021 is a quantum leap in our response to flu. We can do better in terms of suppressing the flu virus than we have done in previous years, even if there was no Covid. The fact that we have Covid creates the possibility of a second wave happening at the same time as a bad flu season, which would be very serious indeed. We need to act now to reduce the risk of that. This involves making sure that as many people over 70 and healthcare workers as possible have the vaccine this year. For the first time in a long time, perhaps for the first time ever in Ireland, we will be extending the vaccine to children below the age of 12, as well as more at-risk groups.

To answer the Deputy's question, the extension will permit all of those in at-risk groups who are aged six months or older and all healthcare workers to avail of the vaccine free of charge. The extension will also provide access to the vaccine for children aged from two to 12 years, inclusive. That will involve the nasal drop version of the vaccine rather than an injection. The HSE has placed orders for 1.35 million doses of the quadrivalent influenza vaccine for the forthcoming winter. This will be sufficient for a 90% uptake among at-risk groups, including healthcare workers. That is a much higher uptake than we would have had in the past. In addition to those 1.35 million doses, 600,000 doses of the nasal drop vaccine for children have been ordered. That would provide for a 75% uptake among children.

To give the Deputy an indication of what the position was like in previous years, the uptake among people over 65 was 68.5%. We need to do much better than that. There must be a big campaign around this. For healthcare workers in hospitals, the rate of uptake was just over 50%. In the community, it was less than 50%. That is a really big problem. We are planning for an uptake of 75% among children. Typically, in countries that provide the flu vaccine for kids, the rate of uptake is in the region of 50%. The rate in the UK is around that mark and in Finland it is 20%. We will have enough on our plate in order to do better than any other country. We should aim to do better than any other country because this will be a real risk in the next few months.

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