Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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4. To ask the Minister for Health the status of plans to introduce a no-fault vaccination compensation scheme for severe adverse reactions to State-promoted vaccination programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16903/23]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Commitments were given the past two programmes for Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine compensation scheme. This was again promised by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, in advance of the introduction of the Covid vaccination programme.

My engagement on this issue with various Ministers for Health has been ongoing for the past 250 months or more than two decades. We now have claims related to adverse reactions to the Covid vaccine. When will a compensation scheme be introduced in this State, as is the case in many other countries?

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the Deputy’s very long-standing work on this issue. My Department and the HSE work continuously to monitor and improve patient safety and reduce incidents of harm. The Government recently approved the establishment of an interdepartmental working group to examine the rising cost of health-related claims and consider mechanisms to reduce costs. The group will examine the rising cost of clinical negligence claims in the health system with a particular focus on high-value claims, many of which relate to obstetrics, and identify measures that could be put in place to reduce future costs and more importantly, reduce harm to patients and minimise adverse incidents. The group is chaired independently, which is very important, by an expert healthcare professional, Dr. Rhona Mahony, and its membership is taken from across key Departments and agencies.

With regard to vaccination, patients concerned with a possible side effect or adverse reaction following a vaccination should, in the first instance, consult with their medical practitioner who can refer them as necessary to appropriate services following clinical assessment.

It should also be noted that vaccines can only be approved and used if they comply with all the requirements of quality, safety and efficacy set out in relevant EU pharmaceutical legislation. Any authorised vaccine will be subject to ongoing monitoring in Ireland by the Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA. The latest safety updates from the HPRA regarding Covid-19 vaccinations are available on the authority's website.

Regarding a vaccine damage compensation scheme, during the pandemic, all available Department of Health resources were devoted to the public health response. This has meant that work the Deputy is rightly calling for could not be progressed. It had been planned to progress it but it was not progressed. Further scoping work is required to pull the group together and to move this forward again as we must.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I am deeply disappointed by the Minister’s response. Scoping reports were done by the former Minister for Health, Deputy Micheál Martin, who gave a commitment when he was Minister to deliver on this. Every other Minister for Health since then has given this commitment. We have this height of reports on this issue. This scheme has been introduced in 25 countries.

The reality is that vaccination compensation schemes boost public confidence in respect of successful vaccination programmes. Vaccination programmes are vital to maintain herd immunity against a range of diseases. In respect of the emerging academic evidence on post-viral chronic conditions such as long Covid, ME, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Lyme disease, viruses are now being associated with these conditions so we need a proactive rather than a reactive approach to this.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I fully accept and appreciate the Deputy’s frustration. As he noted, he has been talking about this for more than 20 years. I fully accept that. He will be aware that in mid-June 2018, the Government received a comprehensive report from Mr. Justice Charles Meenan on clinical negligence. My understanding is that it was intended in early 2020 to do exactly what the Deputy is calling for - to pull this group together, examine the international evidence and introduce something here for exactly the reasons outlined by him. Then Covid happened and the public health experts and doctors, the Chief Medical Officer, the deputy Chief Medical Officer, the bioethicists and all the people we would normally have involved in this were for obvious reasons pulled almost exclusively into the Covid response. Let us all hope that Covid is in the rear view mirror and now is the time we can pull this group together.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Back in 2020, the recommendation was that a vaccine injury scheme should be introduced as a matter of urgency. The Minister knows that there is a culture of fighting claims within the State Claims Agency and the health profession. There are parents who have been advocating on behalf of disabled children for more than 50 years and the doors have been slammed in their faces by the health profession telling them it is all in their heads.

The Minister's predecessor, in the 1980s, paid a £10,000 compensation package to get parents to shut up in relation to this. It is not good enough that decades later we are still talking about another report, another review and no action.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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That is a partial characterisation. A lot of the work required to do this was undertaken. On foot of a request from my Department, the Health Research Board did an extensive international evidence review. It looked at Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, the US and the UK.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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It was done ten years before that.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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That was a legitimate part of the work, which was submitted to my predecessor in March 2019. The very clear advice I have is that the Department was fully intent on doing this. It is complex. Sensitive policy decisions have to be made and extensive legal advice has to be obtained. I accept the Deputy’s bona fides on this and I agree we need this scheme. At this point, the only reason we do not have it is that all the people required to put it together were, for obvious reasons, pulled on to Covid for two years. Now is a good time to push that work back into action.