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STATEMENT BY BRENDAN
HOWLIN TD
CERVICAL CANCER
VACCINATION DECISION DISGRACEFUL AND UNACCEPTABLE
Thursday, 13th November, 2008
The decision of the Government to
cancel the Cervical Cancer Vaccination Programme for
young girls is disgraceful and unacceptable.
This Programme announced last August was to protect
young girls from this dreaded disease. In all my
years in Dáil Éireann I don’t recall any Minister
announcing a life saving procedure and then withdrawing
its delivery.
When introducing the vaccination scheme Minister Harney
said “the expert advice is that the introduction of a
universal, high uptake, vaccination programme for young
girls, in conjunction with population based cervical
screening, could significantly reduce overall cervical
cancer rates”.
How in conscience can she and her government now cancel
this programme?
The savings suggested are between €7 million and €10
million. Any Minister would find savings of this
amount from a Health Budget of €16 billion.
This damaging short-sighted decision must be overturned.
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