Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Conway for raising this matter. We have spoken about it previously and I fully agree with everything he has said.

I will address the Senator's concerns under the three categories he raised, namely, the plan, the vaccination centres and the costings. In 2009, the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, recommended the HPV vaccination for all 12 and 13-year-old girls to reduce their risk of developing cervical cancer when they are adults. In September 2010, the HPV vaccination programme was introduced for all girls in the first year of secondary school.

In 2013, NIAC recommended that the HPV vaccine should be given to boys. On foot of NIAC's recommendation, my Department asked HIQA to undertake a health technology assessment, HTA, to establish the clinical and cost effectiveness of extending the current immunisation programme to include boys in their first year of secondary school. HIQA completed the HTA in December 2018, which recommended the HPV immunisation programme be extended to include boys in their first year of secondary school.

A policy decision was made to expand the HPV immunisation programme to include boys, starting in September 2019, with the introduction of the 9-valent HPV vaccine. The ages at which vaccines are recommended in immunisation schedules are chosen by NIAC in order to give each child the best possible protection against the vaccine. It is important to note that for the 2019-20 academic year, the uptake for the HPV vaccine was recorded at 82% for the first dose of the vaccine and 77% for the second dose. This was the highest uptake of the HPV vaccination programme since 2015-16 and is especially encouraging because it was the first year in which boys were included in the programme. It also shows that the provision of the vaccine in community clinics did not adversely affect the uptake.

The programme for the academic year 2020-21 was paused during the first few months of this year due to school closures and redeployment of the staff. The inputting of the uptake information for the schools-based programme was also delayed due to the redeployment of the administrative staff. However, community healthcare organisations, CHOs, have reported that the vast majority of second level schools had their first dose of HPV vaccine delivered between October and December of last year. The current record uptake rate for the HPV vaccine in the 2020-21 academic year is over 73% and the figure is probably higher because the administrative staff have not updated it.All CHOs have plans to recommence their school programme this month, which will see the continued roll-out of the HPV vaccine.

At the request of the Department, HIQA is conducting a HTA on a school-based HPV mop-up vaccination programme for those who were previously eligible and missed out on the vaccine. HIQA has confirmed that the HTA has been added to its work programme for 2021-22. I am told today that it is hoped that this work will be completed in the coming months. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, has requested that officials give consideration to the outcome of this work.

Senator Conway inquired about the use of vaccination centres and if HIQA would consider redeploying the centres where we have a low turnout for a once-off mopping up programme. In the context of mopping up, we are talking about children within school and college settings, but it also includes those aged under 24 who have moved on into workforce settings. The mop-up programme is not set in a particular area. We have a very broad lens when we are looking at it. I am out of time so I will answer the Senator's third question when I speak next.