Shingles Vaccination Programme: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for coming to take this matter. I know she is not the lead Minister but I appreciate her coming and I know we on this side of the House, as do all our Members, appreciate her coming here and hearing what is to be said. I commend my colleague Senator Conway on the excellent way he has presented this Private Members' business. I thank his team and his supporters who have worked with him because I know he has widely collaborated on this.
The question has to be asked. It makes eminent sense that we should have a roll-out of a full scheme. It is worth stating that the national immunisation advisory committee, NIAC, recommends the vaccine for all adults 65 years or older, adults aged 50 years or older who may be immunocompromised and a cohort of specific high-risk groups aged 18 or over. That is what NIAC is doing. The HSE, of course, has the issue about the funding. What is quite disturbing is that following the health technological assessment carried out by the HSE in July 2024, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, advised that adding the vaccine to the routine schedule, as it was currently priced, would not be cost-effective. That is what it bounces down to. Basically, the Government is sitting on its hands because the HSE has said it cannot afford this. That does not make sense. We have listened to Senator Conway set out all the good reasons for the vaccine. This is being decided on cost. The key element of what Senator Conway said is about equitable access, equal access for all, to avail of our health services. We cannot come into these Houses and spout about equality and accessibility to our health services if we cannot see to putting in place real, tangible measures in relation to this vaccine.
The Minister of State will be aware of GSK. I certainly am very aware of it and have spoken about it many times in these Houses. It operates and provides certain vaccines under the national immunisation programme. A deal can be cut, given the numbers involved, and I suggest that, hopefully, out of all this, this matter will be revisited. As regards the vaccine's effectiveness, we know from expert advice that a 90% protection rate has been proven. That is the track record. The issue seems to be about cost and availability. We know that in the private sector any one of us can walk into a private facility and for between €450 and €500, or in some cases if we have special cover under our private health insurance, for those who are lucky to have it, and fewer people have it now because of the problem of cost, we can have this. We therefore have a two-tiered system.
This motion asks the Government to look at this again and to make this vaccine available for those who need it. The Minister of State and I know former colleagues in this House who suffered terribly from shingles. It is an awful condition. We can do something about it. The rally call from my colleague, supported by Independent Senators from the Seanad Independent Group, is that we need to do something. I look forward to hearing what the Minister of State has to say and the message she brings on behalf of the Minister for Heath, who has overall responsibility. I really do not want to hear today - and I mean this with full respect to the Minister of State - that this is a matter for the HSE. The HSE is a big organisation but it is a beast of the politicians. We created the HSE and we cannot keep saying to the people that we have no control over the HSE. We control its budgets, we control policy and, therefore, we must influence change to bring about the change Senator Conway has espoused here today.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05