Vaccination Programme Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ John Connolly (FF), Galway West Gabhaim buíochas le hOifig an Cheann Comhairle as ucht an ábhar seo a roghnú ar maidin. Mar a dúirt an Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, I wish to ask the Minister to discuss the availability of the shingles vaccine for those aged over 65 or those with compromised immune systems. Shingles affects approximately one in three people during their lifetime, with the risk of contraction increasing significantly with age. I think also the risk of impact increases significantly with age. The condition can cause severe and prolonged pain. I discussed the matter with my colleague, Deputy Martin Daly, who was in a position to advise me of some of the impacts of the shingles virus when contracted. It causes a very significant rash and the pain can be extremely debilitating. Should the rash affect one's face, it can cause serious vision problems, including potential risk of permanent vision loss. It can cause chronic pain. Some 30% of patients described feeling the pain some years after initially contracting the illness. In some cases it can lead to a syndrome known as post-herpetic neuralgia, PHN, where nerve pain continues for months or even years after the shingles rash is healed. One can imagine such an illness could have a very lasting impact on mobility, independence and quality of life. A range of international studies have shown that the shingles vaccine may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. It can also slow the progression of dementia. In Ireland, unfortunately, access to the shingles vaccination currently depends largely on ability to pay, with the vaccine costing up to €500 per person, which places it out of the reach of many older people living on the State pension and creates inexorable health outcomes based on income. In February 2024, the national immunisation advisory committee recommended the recombinant herpes zoster vaccine for all adults aged 65 and over but following this the Health Information and Quality Authority conducted a health technology assessment, which was published in 2024. It concluded that the vaccination of all adults aged over 50 was not cost-effective. One of the queries I have is that when the national immunisation advisory committee recommended the vaccine for those aged 65, why did HIQA conduct an assessment on providing it for all adults over the age of 50? It seems that the threat of contracting shingles and the impact of it increases significantly for those aged over 65. The assessment did not specifically model a targeted programme for those aged over 65, despite the recommendation of the national immunisation advisory committee. Many countries, including our neighbours in the UK, and other European countries such as Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands already provide the shingles vaccination free of charge to older adults, so there is a trend across Europe of this being provided but Ireland is yet to introduce such a scheme. I met recently with a group from the active retirement association in Galway, which put forward a very good argument for a targeted, age-focused vaccination programme for adults aged 65 and over, as advised by the national immunisation advisory committee. We owe it to the people of the country to formally assess the provision of the vaccine to those over the age of 65. I ask that the Minister would give it every consideration. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:43+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-04