I thank Deputy Burke for raising this matter in the House this evening. I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, who shares Deputy Burke's concerns in relation to the current cost of shingles vaccination in Ireland. Varicella is a common, highly infectious disease caused by the varicella zoster virus. The virus is associated with two distinct clinical syndromes, varicella, known as chickenpox, and herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles. Primary infection with the varicella zoster virus results in varicella, after which the virus becomes latent in the body’s nervous system. The virus may reactivate after a period, sometimes several decades later, resulting in herpes zoster or shingles. Approximately one third of people who have had a varicella infection will develop a shingles infection at some point during their lifetime due to reactivation of the virus. Morbidity associated with herpes zoster increases with age. The most common complication is post-herpetic neuralgia, a persistent pain in the area of the rash. This has the potential to cause significant reductions in quality of life, activity, mood and sleep. Two thirds of cases occur in those aged 50 and older. The risk of developing the disease in those aged 85 and over is 50%. A non-live, recombinant shingles vaccine called Shingrix is available in Ireland and is given as a two-dose vaccine. Shingrix is more effective than the previously available live vaccine Zostavax and can be safely administered to immunocompromised patients. Shingrix has also replaced Zostavax as the preferred vaccine against shingles internationally. The national immunisation advisory committee guidelines state that the Shingrix vaccine may be considered in those aged 65 and older due to the greater burden and severity of disease and post-herpetic neuralgia in this age group and in those aged 18 years and older at increased risk of shingles. The shingles vaccine is not currently provided as part of the national immunisation programme. The Minister for Health advises that following a request from her Department, HIQA carried out a health technology assessment, HTA, on the herpes zoster vaccine which protects against shingles. This assessment 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 last year. The HTA found that adding the shingles vaccine to the routine immunisation schedule at the vaccine price at the time for all adults aged 65 and over would not be cost-effective and would be associated with a substantial budget impact. While the HTA found that the introduction of the shingles vaccine was not cost-effective based on the cost of the vaccine, it found that it could be cost-effective for vaccination of those aged 75 years and 80 years if the cost of the vaccine was reduced by 80%. 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. The Department 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 more favourable. On the question of the shingles vaccine being included in the drugs payment scheme and the medical card scheme, it is the Health Service Executive which has statutory responsibility for decisions on pricing and reimbursement of medicines in accordance with the provisions of the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013. The Minister for Health has no role in decisions relating to approving which medical products are covered under these schemes.
Sentiment score: 0.08
Deputy Burke made some very valid points. He is right about the long-term effects of shingles and the ageing population. I thank him again for raising this important matter. He is right that we should be forward thinking. Vaccination is regarded as one of the most effective, cost-effective and successful public health interventions that exist, saving many lives every year. As has been highlighted, shingles can impact anyone who has been infected with chickenpox during their life, leaving a significant proportion of the general population vulnerable. Up to one in three people who have had chickenpox will go on to have shingles. That is why the Department requested that HIQA carry out a HTA to review the evidence for adding the shingles vaccination to the adult immunisation schedule in Ireland. It is hoped that the introduction of the shingles vaccine to the immunisation schedule in Ireland can be reconsidered if and when the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine is confirmed as more favourable. Members will be aware that the immunisation programme in Ireland is based on the advice of the national immunisation advisory committee. The committee's recommendations are based on the prevalence of the relevant disease in Ireland and international best practice in relation to immunisation. To protect the public from serious outcomes of diseases, vaccines included in the national immunisation programme are administered free of charge to those in eligible at-risk groups. More generally, the Minister asked that I take this opportunity to urge all those eligible for any vaccine under the national immunisation programme, at all stages of life, to avail of the opportunity to be vaccinated. In particular, the Minister encourages all parents to bring their young infants, in line with the vaccination schedule, to the GP for their important childhood immunisations. This will help us to reach the shared objective of protecting public health by preventing the spread of disease in our community. I will take the Deputy's remarks back to the Department and the Minister. He made valid points that should be listened to.
Sentiment score: 0.26
I thank Deputies O'Hara and McGrath for raising these important matters tonight and for allowing me, as Deputy McGrath said, to respond on behalf of the Minister. I say to Deputy O’Hara that the Department recently announced that 98 beds for families seeking international protection will be provided at the Merriman Hotel in Kinvara. The property was previously used to house people who were beneficiaries of the temporary protection directive due to the war in Ukraine and was also used as an international protection accommodation services accommodation centre prior to 2022. The community engagement team has been sharing information with local representatives and community groups since 18 March, including, as the Deputy said, a detailed briefing note, meetings and personal contacts. My information is that the engagement with the community has been extensive over recent months, and we will now progress to providing refuge to families at this location. In terms of the people from Ukraine who remain at the property, they will stay at the Merriman and will be accommodated under the new arrangements. One of the queries raised during community engagement in Kinvara was the agreement to not contract IPAS accommodation in a given town’s only operating hotel. This was accepted by Government and was agreed to on the basis of not removing an important current amenity from public use. The hotel has not been in public use since the Covid-19 pandemic, and since 2022, it has been providing accommodation under contract to the Department. As such, it was not considered necessary to exclude it from consideration for this much-needed accommodation for families in need of shelter. Deputy McGrath raised the issue of Dundrum House Hotel, which ceased operation as a hotel in 2015. There is a golf course, grounds and a hospitality business on site, which have remained open to the community while part of the site operates as an accommodation centre. The former hotel has been providing refuge to a peak capacity of 270 people from Ukraine since 2022, and to more than 50 international protection applicants since the summer of last year. A new contract has commenced at this property, and the centre will provide accommodation to up to 277 people in families seeking international protection. This figure includes beneficiaries of temporary protection due to the war in Ukraine who were already being accommodated and is not therefore an increase in the overall capacity at this centre since 2022. The community engagement team has extensively engaged with the local community about this property since May 2024, including discussions on the potential accommodation of international protection applicants. On 15 April 2025, the community engagement team sent a formal briefing note, including the name of the accommodation provider, the type and nature of accommodation to be provided and details about the services to be put in place. In terms of the provider themselves, the Department can consider offers of accommodation from a tax-compliant company, subject to compliance with statutory requirements and minimum standards. Offers of accommodation can be made by a property owner, leaseholder or other authority. As part of the Department's appraisal process, it can confirm if an offer has come from someone with the appropriate authority. The Department carries out due diligence on accommodation being contracted to ensure Companies Registration Office and tax compliance. In line with EU trade arrangements, a company or company director from another EU member state may operate contracts within Ireland or work with an Irish business to do so. In terms of the contract in this case, the registered company named on the contract is a newly established entity that fully met the Department’s requirements. The company is part of a wider commercial group that has experience in providing international protection accommodation. Where the Department enters into a contract, the onus is on the accommodation provider to ensure all activities at the property are within legal limits. The Department understands the local authority is in contact with the property with regard to planning matters, and as this is a large site with various distinct areas and uses, these matters are largely unrelated to the areas of the site contracted to the Department. The Department is also aware of ongoing court proceedings with regard to this property, which is not appropriate for me to comment upon. I assure the Deputy that should any action be required as a result of any court proceedings or the local authority’s engagement at the property, these will be addressed by Department officials as appropriate.
Sentiment score: 0.18
To Deputy O'Hara, I repeat that those people from Ukraine who remain in the property will stay at the Merriman Hotel and will be accommodated under new arrangements. That is fairly black and white. I take on board the comments of both Deputies and will bring them back to the Minister. The Department has been working with communities all over Ireland to source and provide accommodation for people applying for international protection. Emergency centres have been opened in all parts of the country. This is part of Irish and EU law and is also part of our humanitarian duty to provide shelter to people fleeing war and persecution in their home countries. I repeat that it is our humanitarian duty. The State is currently accommodating over 33,000 people in over 320 international protection accommodation centres around the country. The Government is working towards a more sustainable international protection accommodation system that will include moving away, over time, from an over-reliance on commercial and emergency accommodation contracts. The Government is working to ensure that a greater proportion of accommodation is provided on State-owned land over time. The degree of control given to the State by the creation of a core supply of State-owned accommodation for both emergency and permanent options will increase as supply is delivered, re-establishing strategic direction over the accommodation type, location and dispersal pattern. This work will be progressed as part of the development of a new migration and integration strategy, and will shortly transfer from this Department to the Department of Justice. That move is to be completed in the coming days. Deputy Mattie McGrath made reference to May Day. I repeat that there has been engagement. We have a humanitarian duty. The Government and Department are working in compliance with tax requirements, the Companies Registration Office and EU trade agreements. I ask Members to be careful in the language they use. I recognise their views are sincerely held. However, our language and how we express ourselves is very important. We are talking here about people who are looking for refuge and are living in communities. I urge all Members to be sensitive to the needs of everybody.
Sentiment score: 0.07
I thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising the matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister. The Deputy is right that we are not immune to extreme events and he rightly illustrated and highlighted our vulnerability in terms of 2.5 times our usage having gone in five seconds. He is bang on. It is important to note that we do not yet know the causes of yesterday’s event. This kind of cascading event has happened to power grids before. We remember the north-east of the US in 2003, when 55 million people were affected, in particular in New York, and more recently in Chile in February of this year, when the vast majority of the 19 million customers lost electricity for a number of hours. EirGrid regularly tests the resilience of our grid to extreme events such as these as part of National Emergency Co-ordination Group emergency exercises. EirGrid’s recently published generation adequacy assessment shows a significant reduction in risks from recent years. This substantial improvement is in large part due to the mitigations from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities-led programme of actions to ensure security of electricity supply. New temporary emergency generation capacity has now been delivered in four locations, namely, North Wall and Huntstown in Dublin, Shannonbridge, County Offaly, and Tarbert, County Kerry. Additionally, Moneypoint power station is converting from coal to heavy fuel oil and has been contracted to remain open until 2029 as an “out of market” unit to provide power only when required by the system operator for electricity security. Moreover, a number of power generation projects have been delivered over the last few years, including capacity market projects, renewables and a new 500 MW interconnector to Great Britain that began operation this year. It is important to note that conventional generation is still critical for the secure operation of a power system. The spinning motion of conventional fossil fuel generation provides inertia to the system that can protect frequency oscillations from cascading through the system and causing other generators to trip off. EirGrid is already taking a range of actions to ensure our system security during the energy transition. It is also continuing to assess how it can securely integrate further variable renewables at any one time. For example, EirGrid is procuring low carbon inertia services to replace the need for running conventional generation in a highly renewable grid. Ireland has successfully implemented up to 75% variable renewables sources on the grid at any one time and these inertia services will allow us to go further. The Department has also commissioned the International Energy Agency to conduct a study of our electricity security in the context of our energy transition to 2035. This study will be focused on the role of the power sector in achieving that secure transition. It will help Ireland to plan the integration of power sector planning within the wider energy sector as we electrify heat, transport and industry. Furthermore, it will provide an independent internationally peer reviewed assessment of what Ireland needs as we move to a highly renewables system to ensure both security of supply, that is, whether we have enough supply to meet demand and system security, that is, the ability of the electricity system to retain a normal state or to return to a normal state after any type of event as soon as possible. The Department expects to receive a copy of this report before the end of the year and will publish it thereafter. Deputy Ó Muirí's points are well made and I will bring his concerns back to the Minister. I congratulate Deputy Ó Muirí on his appointment as Chair of a committee and I wish him well in his term ahead.
Sentiment score: 0.25
I again thank Deputy Ó Muirí for raising the matter, which is of critical importance. The Deputy is right that there must be learnings from what happened yesterday, whatever the cause of the Iberian blackout is, and that has not been confirmed yet. The authorities in Portugal and Spain are continuing to assess the cause and it may take time. The point the Deputy makes is that we must take learnings from this. In Ireland, EirGrid recently published a resource adequacy assessment, which has forecast a significant improvement in terms of security of supply over the next ten years. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities-led programme of actions has delivered a number of actions to ensure security of electricity supply since 2021, namely, temporary emergency generation and the conversion of Moneypoint from coal to heavy fuel oil. Moreover, a number of generation projects have been delivered in recent years, including capacity market projects, renewables and, as I said, a new 500 MW interconnector to Britain has begun operation. Emergency exercises regularly take place with key stakeholders to test the resilience of our national grid in extreme scenarios like this. As the Deputy rightly said, it is incumbent on us to take the learnings, to plan and to understand what has happened here, and to bring the learnings and best outcomes for our country to ensure we have security of supply. I will bring the Deputy’s concerns and his points back to the Minister.
Sentiment score: 0.25