Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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521. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the herpes zoster vaccine (shingles vaccine) is not available to those individuals with a medical card or old age pensioners; if she has any plans to change this over the next 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22526/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Shingles vaccination is not currently provided as part of the national immunisation programme.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) recently carried out a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) on the herpes zoster vaccine which protects against shingles. A HTA is a multidisciplinary research process that collects and summarises information about a health technology. The information can cover a range of fields, including clinical effectiveness and safety, cost-effectiveness and budget impact, organisational and social aspects, and ethical and legal issues. The information is collected and presented in a systematic, unbiased and transparent manner.

HIQA’s HTA examined the evidence on the clinical effectiveness and safety of shingles vaccines. The cost effectiveness and budget impact were also reviewed, along with the ethical, social and organisational implications of including the vaccine in the adult immunisation schedule.

HIQA published this HTA on 19 July 2024. The HTA found that adding the shingles vaccine to the routine immunisation schedule would not be cost effective and would be associated with a substantial budget impact.

Given that the healthcare budget is finite and decisions regarding increased spending relating to a change in one area could impact the provision of other health technologies and treatments within the healthcare system, the cost-effectiveness must be considered in any decision-making process.

My Department has considered the findings of this HTA and determined that the introduction of the vaccine could be reconsidered when the cost effectiveness of the vaccine is confirmed as being more favourable.