Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All of us would agree the Covid vaccination programme was an extraordinary success. It has been fantastic. All of us queued up, got our vaccinations, stayed safe and were kept safe in the main. So it is worrying that today Professor Éamonn O’Moore, director of national health protection in the HSE, has said there has been a low uptake of vaccinations and that we need an urgent uptake in vaccination for both Covid and flu. In Ireland we have the advantage of seeing how the flu happens in Australia and by the time winter comes here we can get ahead of that with vaccinations. I urge people to make sure they are vaccinated.

A cohort of people can get the vaccine free of charge. If you are in an at-risk group, under 12 or over 65, you can get it free of charge, as can all healthcare workers. One sector that does not get it free is childcare workers. They are susceptible, given the nature of the job, to bodily fluids from children, children getting sick on them and all sorts of things. It is a crucial profession for the care of our children and the running of our economy, allowing people to go to work so that we have a full complement. The childcare sector is already under a lot of pressure. Yesterday, I wrote to the Minister for Health and the Minister for children to support adding childcare workers to that cohort who can get the flu jab free of charge. It is at a cost of €35 which, in some instances, is twice the hourly wage for people in the sector. The Leader has supported childcare immensely and I ask her to write on behalf of the Seanad to the Minister urging support for childcare workers getting the flu jab free of charge.