Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

This comes issue under the Department of Health. My question on whether consideration will be given to putting in place a shingles vaccination programme to be made available to people over 65 or to immunocompromised patients in view of the fact that shingles vaccination is recommended by NIAC for those over 65 and for those who are immunocompromised and aged between 18 and 65. Shingles vaccination is currently not available on the national immunisation programme. While the drug for shingles is approved, it is not available under the medical card scheme or under the present health programme. We must remember that when a person gets shingles, especially those over 65, up to 30% of people end up with long-term nerve pain. Anything up to 25% of people are adversely affected in the area around the eye. Shingles is also associated with increased risk of stroke and neurological conditions.

As the Minister of State will be aware, the age profile of the population of this country is changing dramatically. Since 2011, the number of people over 65 has increased from 600,000 to 860,000 and within the next four years, it will be over 1 million. It is also important to note that at any one time, 50% of all hospital beds in our hospitals are occupied by people over 65. I am disappointed that we have not put in place or even started this programme. Even if we decided to go for people over 75, we could easily put in place a programme that would cost us less than €10 million in real terms. In real terms, however, it would probably be a cost saving because if you have people who end up in hospital as a result of getting shingles, due to the knock-on adverse effect it can have on their health, then there is a real saving there. As the Minister of State will be aware, the average cost to the State is €8,000 per week for each week a person is in hospital.

I ask that the Government give serious consideration to putting in place a vaccination programme. While my request is for people over 65, if we cannot do it for over 65s, we should at least put it in place for people over 75. A number of other European countries already have it in place. The UK is putting in place a programme for over 75s. It is recognised that there would be a real saving to the State in the long term. This is particularly true for those over 65 but also for those who are immunocompromised. If they get shingles, if they already have a medical complication, this will add further to their problems, add to the occupancy of hospital beds, and add in real terms to the overall medical cost. That is the reason I am bringing forward this Topical Issue this evening.

See this speech in context