Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am pleased a Minister from the Department of Health is responding to this important debate.

The Government demonstrated a deep commitment to children by appointing a senior Minister with specific responsibility in this area. Through this and the children's rights referendum, it has displayed a commitment to children above and beyond what any previous Government did, which is appropriate. However, Ireland has the highest incidence of meningitis in the European Union which is not acceptable. An immunisation programme for meningitis C was introduced at one stage and dramatically reduced the number of children diagnosed with this awful condition to zero in 2012. It had a 100% success rate. Within two years one could count on one hand the number of children suffering from the disease. Thankfully, a vaccine became available for meningitis B at the beginning of 2013. It has been accepted in countries such as Australia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy and, in the past week, the United Kingdom. These countries are rolling out programmes to vaccinate all children against this dreadful disease.

Many people have lost loved ones to meningitis. We probably all know somebody who has. When my wife was aged four years, she was diagnosed with the disease and luckily survived it. We share a deep sense of responsibility to do what we can to ensure the lives of young people are saved when it is possible to do so. The national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, met to discuss the new vaccine after the United Kingdom had decided to roll out a programme, but it postponed making a recommendation to the Minister, even though its members sit in on the deliberations in the United Kingdom on such programmes. They have all of the knowledge the UK Government has, but they decided to postpone making a recommendation to the Minister. This is serious. The families of people who suffer or who have suffered from meningitis and families who have lost loved ones to meningitis are appalled to think this vaccine is not being rolled out immediately. Children in Northern Ireland have access to a vaccine, but those in the South do not. What is worse is that if a family is wealthy, it can buy the vaccine because it is available to those who can afford it. Not alone is there inequality between people here and in Northern Ireland, there is also inequality between rich and poor. This does not equate to cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

I hope the Minister of State will outline a timeline for the introduction of the vaccine. If the NIAC is not prepared to make a recommendation quickly, I ask the Minister to direct the committee to do so and place a time limit on it. This is an important issue and a solution is available that will save children's lives immediately. There have been seven meningitis B cases in the past four or five weeks in counties Cavan, Limerick, Sligo, Dublin and Cork. Therefore, this issue needs urgent attention.