Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 381: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when the swine flu vaccine will be rolled out; the plan for the roll out; the category or groups to which priority will be given; if the vaccine will be rolled out to the entire population including persons over 65 years of age; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30503/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Ireland has, through putting in place advance purchase agreements with two vaccine manufacturers prior to the declaration of the pandemic, secured a total of 7.7m doses of pandemic vaccine. This quantity of vaccine is sufficient to allow the pandemic vaccine to be offered to the whole population and the agreements have ensured that we will get priority delivery of the vaccine as it becomes available. The first doses of the vaccine have arrived in Ireland.

The Health Service Executive is finalising the details of the Pandemic Vaccination Programme. This is an enormous and logistically complex undertaking. The launch of the programme will depend on when the vaccines will be licensed and the availability of sufficient stock of the vaccine. The vaccine will not be administered pre-licence. It will take up to 12 months for all of the vaccine to be delivered and any delays in delivery schedules will affect the vaccination programme. It is hoped that we will be able to commence vaccination in mid October. The launch of the plan needs to be carefully managed in order to gain maximum publicity in the interest of attaining a high level of uptake. Health care workers will be vaccinated in hospitals and other healthcare facilities while the rest of the population will be vaccinated primarily in specially established mass vaccination centres. Each individual will, on the basis of current WHO guidelines, receive two doses of vaccine. The licence will specify the timing of the second dose but it is anticipated that it will be given three weeks after the first.

Initially this vaccine will be offered to Health Care Workers and after that to those people with increased medical risk. The rest of the population will then be offered the vaccine on a staged basis.