Taoiseach urges vigilance over anti-vaccine sentiment in Ireland

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

There has to be vigilance to make sure anti-vaccine sentiment does not take hold in Ireland, the Taoiseach has said.

Micheál Martin also said he hoped the Government’s review of the response to Covid-19 would be expedited to ensure the State is better prepared to deal with pandemics in the future.

The State has set up a Covid-19 Evaluation, rather than a statutory inquiry, to investigate the response to the pandemic.

Asked for an update on its work, the Taoiseach said: “The inquiry, my understanding, is on the way, and I hope it can be expedited with a view to re-evaluating what do we take from it to enable us to be better prepared into the future.

“I think what’s interesting is very often… when actually the pandemic happens, not everything goes in accordance with the plans that might have been written in respect of it.

“And I think those are structural issues we need to look at in terms of how one would respond, in terms of the collective approach of government and so forth.

“There are certainly things we can pick up on.”

Mr Martin said the pandemic had been a traumatic period for Ireland.

“Very many people lost their lives… many families found it very hard to mourn the loss of their loved ones,” he said.

“That said, I think the Irish Health Service responded well overall. I think the country responded well.

“I think the big lesson for me is that vaccination was the key, and we should never lose sight of that, because without vaccination, societies would not have come back as quickly as they did.

“Now the importance there then is, how do we ensure continued international collaboration on the vaccine front and collaboration with industry?

“I think the European Union did a stellar job in respect of combining industry with research to enable us to get the vaccines brought to the market and approved, and then get them manufactured at a pace and volume that enables societies to come back.”

The Taoiseach was asked if he was concerned about anti-vaccine sentiment growing in Ireland.

He said there was a fear there would be resistance to vaccines among the public before the pandemic, but this had not materialised.

Mr Martin said: “There was no issue in Ireland in terms of take-up, the take-up levels were extraordinary.

“So much so the European Union colleagues were saying to me repeatedly, what’s going on, how come you’re getting to 90 per cent participation rates?”

The Taoiseach referenced an outbreak of measles in Dublin in the early 2000s when he was health minister in which three children died.

He said: “There was a lot of negativity around the vaccine at the time, which was not well based.

“And so we have to be very vigilant.”

Mr Martin said there had to be transparency in public health discussions but pointed out that vaccinations had changed the course of medical history.

He added: “So we must not lose sight of that, vaccines work and vaccines do give immunity.

“And there can be every now and again, a fad or a phase where people kind of start jumping on to a particular thought process or thread in respect of specific vaccines.

“But in my view, we keep an eye on it, but I take heart from what happened in the pandemic.”