The flu vaccine must be free for everyone

Labour’s health spokesperson Duncan Smith TD, has called on the Government to provide the flu injection to all for free, this comes following reports of low flu vaccine uptake this year.

Deputy Smith said:

“The Government cannot hide behind the excuse that cost is a barrier here. Government’s decision to not offer the flu vaccine to all citizens for free is doing a disservice to our people, particularly our frontline workers.

“It’s not enough to just provide this vaccine free of charge to children and those in at-risk groups, we must provide it to all citizens for free if we want to try to minimise the damage on our Emergency Departments created in the past by the flu.

“We all know the pressure that the winter flu puts on our Emergency Departments and our ICUs. We know from the INMO there are 562 admitted patients waiting on trolleys today. We can’t exacerbate the problem any further.

“Labour has been calling for the flu injection to be made available to all for free since 2019 as a way to help ease the pressure on other parts of our health system.

“It’s not too late for the Minister to extend the vaccine to all for free. It’s the right thing to do.”