John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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165. To ask the Minister for Health if free HPV vaccine is available for first-year students only; if funding for this measure ended in December 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8236/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines work by preventing infections prior to exposure to the HPV virus. Thus, the vaccines are more effective at a younger age prior to exposure to the HPV virus. The HSE offers a single dose of HPV vaccine to all first-year boys and girls in secondary school as part of the routine HPV vaccination programme.

A vaccine uptake of 90% in girls by the age of 15 is one of the targets required to achieve the goal of cervical cancer elimination by 2040. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked every country to put measures in place to reach this target, and the HSE is working to increase the vaccine uptake in the routine HPV programme from the current uptake of just under 80%.