Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 62: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when she expects to implement the proposal in the programme for Government to introduce a vaccination scheme for the prevention of cervical cancer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22159/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has undertaken a scientific assessment of the public health value of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine following a request from my Department. NIAC and the National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) agreed that this work needed to be complemented by a study of the cost effectiveness of the vaccine in the current Irish context. Accordingly, both organisations requested the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to undertake a study into the cost effectiveness of HPV vaccine.

HIQA has now completed the study and NIAC and NCSS were requested to evaluate the HIQA report. The Chief Medical Officer of my Department has received correspondence from the Chairman of NIAC setting out the NIAC's evaluation of the HIQA report and I have recently received a response from the NCSS.

I will consider all of the advice now available to me to ensure that a policy decision is taken which is coherent as between the introduction of HPV vaccine and the planned national roll out of the cervical screening service, which reflects a fully integrated approach to this problem and which is based on the best national and international evidence available to us. I intend to make a decision this summer.