Vaccination Programme Dail Éireann — 2026-03-04 ============================================================ John Connolly (FF), Galway West I understand the vaccine is available, as the Minister of State outlined. I also understand that when the process of assessing whether it would be provided through the immunisation programme was undertaken, there was a period of public consultation and a substantial number of submissions were made in the public consultation that highlighted that the cost of the vaccine - at that time between €480 and €500 - would be prohibitive for many older people, especially those on fixed incomes and those who rely in particular on the State's old age pension as their only income. The public consultation also highlighted the potential long-term chronic impact of contracting the shingles virus. The impact it would have on quality of life is significant. While I understand everything the Minister of State said, I am not sure it is fully captured in the standard cost-effectiveness modelling. The Minister of State provided one piece of information that differs from the information I have been provided with. In her response she said that: "The HTA found that including the shingles vaccine in the routine immunisation schedule, at the vaccine price at the time, for all adults aged 65 years and over would not be cost-effective" but the information I received is that the assessment was done for all adults aged 50 and over, and that is what was found not to be cost-effective. Clearly, it would be more cost-effective if it was done for the lower number of people who are over the age of 65. There is no argument being put forward by anybody that it should be made freely available to those over the age of 50 but the argument has been strongly made that it would have considerable benefits, including long-term benefits for people over the age of 65. I recognise fully the limits on the State coffers and on the Department in terms of expenditure in this area but I feel the appropriateness and the benefits would outweigh that. --- 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